PRODUCE AND MARKET REPORTS FROM DAY TO DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 101, 2 May 1927, Page 11

PRODUCE AND MARKET REPORTS FROM DAY TO DAY

COTTON GOODS

WILL THEY BE DEARER?

T> 71 i "Ev<?"nS Post," 2nd May. It wii be seen in a cablegram from' London published to-day that the price of American Middling Upland cotton is quoted in Liverpool at 7.90 d per pound for May delivery. The year opened with a Janu^vV* r"7^ Per P?™ 1 ' "» ™Bt£ danuaiy, for lebrmu-y delivery. To-day's price represents an advance of 1.24 d, Bay l%d, per pound. On 29th January, however, the forward price as cabled was 7.00 d, and the price since then advanced point by point until it reached 7.53 d. On 19th i'ebruary, a month later, it had receded to '.-ad, and then recovered to 7.55 d on 12th April, bo iar, improvement in the price lias been attributable to increased Lancashire demand, the result of improved manufacturing conditions. But it is row to be seen what effect the devastating Mississippi -floods will have upon the supply and consequently, the price on the other hand at Ist April. An American estimate of the world's visible supply of American cotton was put at 7,000,000 bales, or 36 per cent, above that of a year ago. The American carry-over into we coming planting season was put at two-thirds of a normal crop. But there are certain counterbalancing factors to be taken into account in considering the future course of the price of the basic American Middling Upland cotton, and ,SZ£ M (1) m the &st half oi the 1926-27 crop year the worlds manufacturing consumption was 600,000 bales more than that of the previous six months; (2) reduced' production in cotton-crowinc countries other than the United States, ™'a uemg three million bales less than iv lJ2b, andvEgypt reducing its acreage for the 1027 spring; and (3) the effects of the great floods upon American produc-

lhe National Bank of Commerce in New lork, commenting on the heavy holding of American cotton, reported Ist April on the great weight of cotton that required to be lifted during April and May, the stocks being larger than they were in the slump year of 1921 wlien the price was down to 10.75 cents (5%d) in New Orleaus on 15th March, 1921. But demand was greatly increased in the interveninc years. It is held that the holding" of cotton in America as on Ist April last would go only about as far, under current conas did the smaller stocks held in 1922. As compared with the amount held a year ago," remarks the bank, "present holdings represent little more than a months additional supply." In regarding the future tho bank observes that if another season brings only an average crop in the United States and foreign, crops are no larger than those of this year, then the consumption, which is wholly based on present prices, would outrun the supply and bring out some; reduction of the large stocks now held. In the United States, it was believed, there would be no sweeping changes in acreage, but somewjiat le ti3 land would be planted in cotton this spring. The great floods already referred to then, may exert a powerful influence upon production, at any rate may enhance the value of the great stocks held in tho States, with corresponding advances in tho prices of Manchester goods.