The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-02-29
COTTON LETTERS

NEW YORK, Feb. 2s.-AFeAr of . lockout in Manchester, resulting from strike in small mill; caused slightly easier market this morning in Liver pool sufficient I overnight Towering made It's appearance to prevent our meeting this decline, although the mar ket ,eased somewhat after the opening. As pressure was. lacking, prices began to improve, with result that weV have had better market again today, in dicating that the drastic decline has probably. run it's course and that still further improvement can be ex- pected. .Advices from the south indi- cate that considerable amount of spot cotton for March commitment is still to be bought; and, if this should make it's appearance in the not-distant fu- ture, we could expect sharp advance in the basis, with a relative improve ment in this market. Advices in the dry goods market, while of a. pessf- mistic character, point to the fact that there are no very great supplies of yarn and only. accumulatfops or gooas Tn certain lines, principally in the hands of first holders, who have had. difficulty in persuading the converter to move stocks even at low prices which have prevailed. In fact, there are compara- lively little goods in the hands of re- tailers. aA fss
 !, There Is also a relatively small scp- piy of spot cotton in the mills, a ae- cided idifference from last year, when the mills had large supplies and were running to capacity to spin up these supplies, thereby furnishing a suffi- cient amount of cloth to take care of ahe market. Should any improvement would not be the surplus supply, pro- viding this improvement became per- manent, to meet the demands, such as was the case last year. 4 Liverpool futures are due tomorrow:
 March, 1z13d; May, 17.06d.--Hubbard
 Bros. x Co.
 NEW YORK, Feb. 2S.-The stock of cotton here is in strong hands, and if it starts to move out as some people think will be the case in the very near future, futures will, immediately re- spond, said a spot and commission house man this afternoon. He added: "The idea that March notices would end the decline seems to have been cor rect"
 We hear. from Worth street that there is only a moderate business in goods so far today. There was a decided increase in sales at the declines recently, but when advanced prices were asked, the demand tapered off. The afternoon ad- vance extended to 30.1bc for May, or 49 points net higher. The volume of business tapered off at this level, but prices held within 3 or 4 points of the best around 2:30. Liverpool and New the mid-afternoon advance.-Post & Flagg to Shannon & Co.
 NEW ORLEANS, Feb. 2s.-The fail- ure of liquidation. to develop in any real volume on. the early dip formed the basis of a much better feeling in the market Thursday.
 After selling off 30 to 40 points, prices recovered sharply and traded we'll over the previous close for the greater part of the session. The range was about 30 points on the old-crop positions and 40 points on October.
 Trading was dull at times, but the ufdertone continued good. A consid- erable part of the advance can prob- ably be attributed to short covering, but there was undoubtedly some good buying on the decline. t
 Dry goods reports were much better and the Journal of Commerce reversed the news on southern mills curtanment with the report that most mills In the CarolinasT were operating at fun capacity, or near it. Curtailment in that section Is said to have been much "exaggerated."
 The weather was more favorable, and the forecasts are for fair and warmer over the belt.
 , Sales 'atg Fall River were estimated at 50, ,00e pieces, Takinss tomorrow will run against 215, 900 pieces last year. and are expected to be bearish again.
 It seems that confidence in the mar ket is being gradually restored, and purchases :. on recessions will prove probably sprofitable.-Levy & Aronson to S. R. stewart.
 wNEw ORLEANS, Feb. 2s.-Cotton was under pressure again during the early trading and slipped back 40 points for old crop months and then rallied Syewhen recent sellers tried to buy back some of their contracts.
 Failure to remove the possibility of a lockout in Manchester wage controver- sies in trade circles in Great Britain and clearing and warmer weather in the west stimulated the early selling. The market took the selling so well, however, that it upset the sellers and soon induced a good many shorts to turn buyers. Reports of better goods trade, large increase in sales at Fall River fear that much further delay in as stimulate general buying and increased inquiry for spots from southern and northern mills proved very helpful and caused fresh buying to come in freely. z;s
 Some map readers said indications for more bad weather in the near future. A correction in the~census figures in supply is daily expected unless the heads of that department can prove they have not so far eliminated the shortage figured by statistics. Senti-