WHEAT PRICES FALL

Southland Times, Issue 19501, 16 March 1925, Page 7

WHEAT PRICES FALL

SPECULATORS RUINED. FRENZIED SCENES IN CHICAGO WHEAT PIT. (By Telegraph—Frees Assn.—Copyright), (Sun Cable). NEW YORK, March 14. (Received March 15, 5.5 p.m.) Chicago wheat quotations are: May, 169| cents; July, 151£ cents; September 142 j cents a bushel. Grain prices on the Board of Trade at Chicago crumbled in one of the biggest breaks of the day since the war. May wheat was the heaviest suffere? showing a loss of 144 cents for the day. A real old fashioned panic developed when the price fall came. Selling orders were throwm into the wheat pit regardless of prices, while scores of men fought themselves into a frenzy endeavouring to execute them. Dishevelled agents were to be seen waving frantically and signalling bids when their voices failed to penetrate the din. Prices fell so fast that sometimes there was a difference of one to two cents between separate points in the pit. Many small speculators were ruined and even some big professionals suffered. The scramble started with the word that a report of a shortage of European foodstuffs was unfounded. With this came the report that several of the biggest wheat, operators were throwing hundreds of thousands of bushels of grain overboard.