WHEAT COLLAPSE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 3 February 1930, Page 5

WHEAT COLLAPSE

CHICAGO MARKETS ATTEMPT TO INFLATE PRICES FAILS RECORD LOW LEVELS (United Press Association—By Electrio Telegraph—Copyright) NEW YORK, Ist February. The "New York" Times Chicago correspondent states that tho eight month of bullish efforts by speculators and the grain trade in general i" the United States and Canada to ignore supply and demand conditions of the world's wheat markets has collapsed. In the last fortnight there have been declines in all grains to the lowest levels of the present season, without an improving demand. A£ the same time a distrustful feeling has been created. Foreign buyers of wheat who have been told by trade leaders as well as by members of the Government's Agricultural Board, that they would have to come to America for supplies, have ignored the predictions so far and bought leisurely on a declining market. They are in a position to dictate values rather than be dictated to. Wheat prices at Chicago have declined around ten cents on a seven days' continuous break and are 45 to 48 cents below the high point reached late last July and eariy August. The decline is the culmination of an effort to unload on foreigners at higher prices the large surplus of the crops of 1928-1929 which were held in the United States and Canada owing to a reduction of about 160 million bushels in the Argentine and Australian crops compared with the previous season. The Argentine was estimated to have only 64 million bushels for export from the present crop, of which 13,800,000 had been shipped already.