Show DUN IS HOPEFUL There is a Dark Tint in the Picture He Paints However y New York Feb 19R G Dun Co will sav tomorrow in their weekly review re-view of trade A large increase in the iron and steel business on account of sales covering eight to 12 months production of the j i demand for largest works a better I woollen Goods and slightly better j I prices for wheat cotton wooand iron I and a money market well adapted to encourage liberal purchases against future fu-ture Improvement in business have rendered the past week more hopeful than any other since early in November I i Novem-ber The heavy excess of merchandise I E exports over imports in January the 4 continuance of exchange rates showing that Europe is still largely indebted to this countrv on current account and the prospect that congress will adjourn ad-journ without any disturbing action ail have their favorable influence upon the money market and upon future I undertakings In nearly every branch the great iron and steel industry feels the upward up-ward imaulse supplied by purchases of steel rails said to be 500000 tons from each the Illinois Steel company t and from the Carnegie company beside be-side some from other companies in j I part as low as 15 per ton about 100 000 to foreign purchasers at 17 to ls but all recent sales at 20 at eastern and 21 at western mills Nearly all the great railroads of the country have seized the opportunity to supply themselves them-selves with rails for one or two years requirements These enormous orders have advanced Bessemers at Pitts burg only 15 cents per ton with Grey Forge a shade lower and no change appears in finished products although plates are unchanged in price with good demand de-mand and nails are held at recent nais prices The Bar association no longer controls anything and iron bars are quoted at 105 per 100 pounds while steel bars are quoted at 95 cents per 100 pounds Structural forms are also steady although 100000 to 150000 tons are sold to be required in New York alone this year and American tinplates tin-plates are still selling at 320 which is 70 cents less than the price for foreign for-eign The sales of wools have sharply declined amounting to 7409300 pounds for the week against 9157900 for the previous week but owing to the heavy transactions early in the month the sales for three weeks have been 30130 000 pounds against 13168700 pounds last year The larger mills have acquired quired full supplies for the present and at any advance of prices they appear ap-pear ready to drop out of the market The demand for wollen goods does not seem to have expanded materially and no quotable change in prices has appeared ap-peared during the week The heavy exports in January following fol-lowing the unprecedented excess of exports ex-ports over imports of merchandise in the four previous months are largely due to the fact that neither the wheat nor the cotton markets have been materially ma-terially controlled by speculation Wheat dropped to 8075 but rose to S325 with no important Impulse except I ex-cept the conviction that the recent prices have been low enough The Atlantic At-lantic escorts flour Included were only 1235375 bushels for the week against 2810304 for last year but for thrtee weeks have been 5090471 bushels against = 5448429 last year The western west-ern receipts are still small for the week only 1507845 bushels against 2 415558 last year and for the past three weeks only 4699210 bushels against 5328771 last year Meanwhile the western west-ern receipts of corn have been well nigh double last years and for three weeks the Atlantic exports have been 6317214 bushels against 3234899 last year Evidently this movement is displacing dis-placing many million bushels of wheat in foreign consumption Figures it this season not count for much in cotton though large supplies and diminished di-minished domestic demand on account of the partial closing of many mills have materially Influenced the market Prices have been comparatively tpd middling uplands declining to but recovering an eighth The volume of business is not accurately accur-ately represented by clearing house exchanges ex-changes owing to the extra holiday this year at some commercial centers But the daily average appears to be 3i per cent smaller than last year The railroad earnings begin to show improvement im-provement being 97 per cent larger than last year for the second week of February Failures for the past week have been 303 in the United States against 280 last year and 5S in Canada against 66 last year |