WHEAT MARKET BREAK

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 657, 8 May 1929, Page 9

WHEAT MARKET BREAK

CHICAGO AND WINNIPEG PRICES CRUMBLE SENSATIONAL DECLINES (Australian, and N.Z. P7~ess Association) (United Service) Reed. 9.5 a.m. WINNIPEG, Tuesday. The worst break in the wheat market Tor five years was experienced on Tuesday. An extreme reaction of 9 cents a bushel, with a close at 8 cents lower, was caused by the announcement of the reduction in the United States grain freight rates to the seaboard, the congestion of the Canadian Atlantic ports, and the weakness of Liverpool, Chicago and Buenos Ayres. The Eastern grain tie-up has reached a state of absolute paralysis. With 90 loaded lake-freighters held here and the Port Colborne vessels paying off their crews, the elevators are jammed to the roofs. Absolutely no grain is moving from Montreal. Nearly 20,000,000 bushels are here, and 3,000,000 at Port Colborne, with 1,000 railway cars on the sidings at Ottawa. The dumping of Argentine wheat on the European market and the congeslion of import wheat, at German ports, due to ice in the canals leading to interior, is given as the cause of the Canadian grain congestion. Reports that the Western wheat pools are holding up the prices for shipment through Eastern ports are discredited. The prices quoted by the central selling agency would be the same at Vancouver as at Montreal. Pool officials assert that a world surplus is responsible for the congestion. Radical departures in financing the huge Western grain crop are said to be under consideration by the banks and Western grain interests. Reed. 9.55 a.m. CHICAGO, Tuesday. Wheat 'prices crumbled to new low levels under a wave of selling started by weak cable news and the sensational declines at Winnipeg. Congestion at Eastern ports was the most bearish factor in all the markets. Wheat closed: May, 1 dollar 5£ cents a bushel; July, 1 dollar 10 3-8 cents; September, 1 dollar I3£ cents; December, 1 dollar 17 7-8 cents.