WHEAT PRICES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 59, 9 February 1925, Page 5

WHEAT PRICES.

MARKET'S SUDDEN COLLAPSE. VANCOUVER, Feb. 6. Chicago wheat prices suddenly collapsed, May delivery dropping to 186 J or 22 cents under last week's higjurecord. Prices for July delivery closed at 159 cents. In the Winnipeg market May wheat fell to 192 cents, July to 188 and October to 146, The skyrocketing of wheat prices, which last week caused serious alarm to European shareholders, broke severely yesterday, closing some 20 cents lower than last week's high level. The sudden break is attributed to the action of the executors of the late Julius Fleischmann, who fell dead on Thursday on the polo field. It is reported that they dumped all his tremendous holdings back into the market. Many heavy losses followed, a number of smaller speculators being wiped out. Increased selling in. the Chicago wheat market revealed that the market was without adequate support from speculative .buyers. Fluctuations were very rapid, the downwurd swing of market trading assuming large proportions. The violence of the break was made worse by the execution of distress orders for holders whose margins were exhausted. Quotations on the blackboards differed widely . from the actual prices in the wheat pit. the fall in value being too swift to he kept up with either by telegraph or telephone. In some instances the market fell over three cents before selling orders could be filled. The crash was halted by reports that exporters were seizing the opportunity to secure ownership of large quantities of wheat at the seaboard in position for quick shipment tj Europe. The market, however, continued to fluctuate erratically with the total transactions on such a heavy scale that individual trading had little or no effect on the course of values. Pro-fit-taking by shorts contributed to the irregularity.—A. and N.Z. cable. FRENCH MEASURES. KEEPING BREAD PRICE LOW. PARIS. Feb. 8. Following the debate on the dearness of bread, the Chamber of Deputies passed a bill which enforces tho producers of bread and cereals to declare the amount of corn they hold in stock and lays it down that only "manufacturers and traders be subject to State control. The bill provides for the imposition of fines for false declarations or refusal to make a declaration, and establishes a tribunal to direct the disposal of cereals. It authorises the Government to provision the couiitiry by Eurchasing home-grown cerealu at a xed price, also to purchase from the colonies abroad, to arrange distribution and, lastly, it authorises the establishment of a credit fund of a hundred million francs for providing a corn reserve.—A. and ».Z. cable.