THE WOOL MARKET.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 766, 31 December 1908, Page 3

THE WOOL MARKET.

SOME NOTES FROM BRADFORD. (From Our Special Correspondent.) London, November 18. With the exception of, perhaps, the first week in January, there has not during the whole year been such a spurt in business as there was last week, and on Monday, especially, there was a most animated and buoyant market. Melbourne and Buenoß Ayres have simply knocked on the head all ideas of cheaper wool m the near future, and, the situation having been cleared up to this extent, customers both at Home and abroad were induced to operate. It is an old saying that wool values are nevier really stationary. They are always either going up or coming down, and when it became pretty clear that they would not go down it was natural to assume that they would not go up. Consequently, all who had uncovered contracts on their books were anxious to get hold of -supplies. Orders came through with almost feverish haste, and, as current quotations, were made, topmakers promptly put up prices for the next comer. This has given the Bradford trade a much needed nlnp, and the pessimists have been confounded. ' , There is a big proportion of those gloomy individuals who always look on the dark side of things, and who always cry down their own trade on the Bradford Exchange, and the new Lord Mayor had a timely hit at them on Monday. Things are never really so black as they are painted in Bradford, and now that the acute stage has been passed, notwithstanding a few failures, it may be said that Bradford has escaped more lightly than many other textile centres, particularly abroad, from the consequences of the American financial panic. There was a pretty general advance in values for all classes of textiles dealt with on the Bradford Exchange on Monday, and the probabilities are that tops will be a. shade dearer. The raw material is going ahead at a much more rapid pace than what, strictly speaking, the amount of business in the semi-manufactured articles would justify, but topmakers are bound to follow. Australia and South America in order to protect themsel- ' *\'es. Apparently the only chance which remains of obtaining wool which may be considered cheap as compared with current values and the state of business is at the November sales which commence on Tuesday, 24th inst., bul in view of the strong position up at Melbourne and Buenos Ayr-3s, holders of stocks in London are not likely to clear their stocks at the lowest prices which were accepted month at Coleman-street. There is no doubt that the conclusion of the Presidential election in America, and the consequent revival of enquiry from that quarter, has helped to stimulate the market, and generally to put things on a better basis. 'Cute Yankee buyers evidently bad in mind what would happen after the election was over when they operated so freely in English wools earli^zin the year. They got hold of large supplies of goods, cheap wool fleeces at prices which would not be accepted to-day. Home wool values never fluctuate to the extent of Colonials, and there has not been any jump in quotations as a result of what has taken place during the past week, but actual selling prices liave tighten »d up to the top level of quotations, and it would not be possible to obtain concessions. Topmakers and merchants are finding it rather difficult to make the .prices they are now quoting, either ojn home or export account. It seeMjß' as' though users have been content to cover their contracts, and as yet there has not been much buying for any long distance ahead. Spinners, however, have got hold of sufficient particulars on old contracts to make up an appreciable difference to their workpeople, and, generally speaking, the outlook for the mid-winter period has much improved, both from the point of view of the employer and the employed, in Bradford, and district. Cables from Australia report an advance of from five to seven and a half per cent, for merinos, from seven and a half per cent, for the better qualities of greasy fine crossbreds, and I five per cent, for the medium and i coarse sorts, since the opening of the sales, and, as was the case at the last sales in London, German and American buyers have been prominently active.