BUSINESS IN AMERICA.

Taihape Daily Times, 3 January 1919, Page 3

BUSINESS IN AMERICA.

EFFECT OF WARfS CESSATION. FALL IN COTTON EXPECTED. Reviewing conditions in the United States on November 2, when the anticipation of an early victory was the dominant factor, Messrs John Dunn, Son and Co., *of New York, wrote, in reference to crops: .Weather conditions have continued favourable, and it is hoped that a slightly better showing for the principal crops will be made by the next Government report. Many look for a total of 950,000,000 bushels of wheat. Corn also is well up to j recent expectations, and it is of par(tieularly good quality. Prices declined during October, due to abundant supplies and rumours of peace. Winter wheat is looking well, and the acreage will be large. The Government, under its guaranteed price of 9s 5d a bushel, may find supplies quite burdensome next year should the war come to an early close. The visible supply of wheat in this country, as last reported, was .107,343,000 bushels, compared with only 9,712,000 bushels at the same time a year ago.

The market for stocks and bonds ! has been broad and of great volume, ! i ' due to expectations of an early peacC 1 . Following the news of Bulgaria's sur- | render, prices advanced very rapidly j and speculation for the rise was much j in evidence. This received prompt attention from the banknig community, and measures were taken to curtail the j use of funds for this purpose. Thi i measure immediately resulted in forced | liquidation of a drastic nature, witn the result that most of the early gains in speculative stocks have been'lost. A decided change has taken place in general opinion regarding "the effect I |of peace on cotton prices. It is now ' urged that the withdrawal of enormous : Government orders will seriously curtail consumption, and that the export demand may not compensate for this on account of a continued shortage of tonnage. It is unquestionable that prices are abnormally high, and that with the period of deflation which will come sooner or later, cotton prices, in common with those of all commodities, must recede. Reports from the South, too, have aroused expectations of a larger crop than was expetced on October 1, and some predictions now point to a crop of possibly 12.500,000 bales. To sum up the situation: Cotton is piling up in the South, stocks are large, exports are small, speculation is lacking. The visible supply of American cotton is 2.851,212 bales, com-

parea with 2,54;:.' 'JO bales at this time last year. Total takings of American' cotton for this season have been 2,156,877 bales against 2,543,037 bales, for that perioa ol last year. Although a number of sailing vessels cleared during October, there arc still very, large quantities of goods lying in New York awaiting shipment, and until this accumulation is cleared up, it is difficult to get the railroads to bring in more. The iron and steel industry is particularly concerned in the result of the peace talk, as it is completely under Government control, and the Govern- i ment is taking such a large percentage of the total production that the abandoning of war work will mean a complete revolution in the operation of plants. Under Government pressure j the tonnage of steel produced has been increasing, and it is reported that in September companies representing 85 1 per cent, of the country's capacity, j produced 3,200,000 tons of steel ingots, indicating a total annual production of I about 45,000,000 tons, which is somewhat in excess of the largest estimates previously made. Railroad freights from Pittsburg district to the Atlantic seaboard have been increased by 10 per cent, from Novemhr 1. This means an addition of about 22Jd a ton "to the cost of manufactured steel delivered at shipping ports.