Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 135, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 November 1903 — COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL

Special telegrams regarding the state of trade from correspondents, of the International Mercantile Agency throughout the United States and Dominion of Canada are summarized as follows: The week has been marked by a somewhat unsettled feeling and renewed conservatism in commercial circles. Distribution of staples is smaller than a week ago at Chicago, and materially so at Pittsburg, Where industrial activity has improved, except for millinery. Cooler weather has improved trade in New England, except for jobbers, where season is ended. Warm weather has dulled demand at Baltimore and at Louisville. Collections are rather slow in territory tributary to St. Paul, but in the cotton regions they are growing easier. Plowmakors report a good business, but moderate collections. Kentucky lias a medium tobacco crop, but prices are better than last year. Philadelphia merchants say trade in staples is smaller. October lumber shipments from Minneapolis were the largest of any mouth this year. Eiy:ouragement is felt at the new polled of the steel trust. Consumers will no longer have to go abroad for steel. Ten thousand tons of rails have been sold to go to China. More mills are opening and some are closing "temporarily. Colorado’s coal strike offsets the settlement of Montana’s copper war. Fall River’s wage cut was- not altogether unexpected. Makers of prints have been losing money at late prices for material and rate of wages. But high cotton is making foreign exchange fast, now that Europe is demanding all it can get regardless of price—the most significant financial feature of the week, with cotton, not steel, as king. ■■ • Dun’s Review, published by R. G. Dun & Co., says this «f business iu Chicago and in the West: Bukiimsa at the banks continues ahead of a -ago, but in some important branches of trade curtailment although not ill a more marked degree than usual at this season, when there is less activity lit outdoor work and lake navigation t&coifies suspended. Weather conditions also have not been entirely satisfactory for a nQrmnl consumption of seasonable merchandise and a strike of street car men interfered with dealings at retail. Grain shipments, including 1,049,056 bushels of corn, reach 3,G51,191 bushels, and are 7 per cent less than a year ngri. Increasing receipts and favorable position of Argentine crops affect the general demand, and prices are again lower compared with a week ago. Live stock receipts, 287,984 head, are 40 per cent under a year ago, when the total was abnormally large. Notwithstanding a tendency to withhold supplies, prices do not regain strength. Hogs declined 20 cents per hundred cattle recovered 20 cents. Demancftor provisions shows dullness on export account, but has been fairly good for domestic consumption.