FINANCIAL NOTES
MARKETS LACK SUPPORT.
STOCK EXCHANGE quotations have continued their wavering and hesitant course during the past week. Half-hearted recoveries have taken place from time to time, but the inter- vening declines have been much more pronounced, and on balance the price curve has been disconcertingly downward. The conditions are just those, in fact, in which the genuine investor should not be stampeded into selling.
There are, of course, obvious explanations for the decline, but equally evident reasons why prices should show more resistance. On the one hand,we have a confused and ominous international situation, the prolonged decline in New York stocks, and the weakness of base-metal and commodity prices. On the other, there is the continued evidence of active and profitable trade in this country. The excellence of most recent industrial company reports shows how rising prosperity has affected past profits : current statistics, including the excellent steel output for September, reveal the maintenance of a high level of activity ; and last week's speeches by the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer seem to dispose quite adequately of fears of an immediate set-back in industry.
Despite these favourable factors, the reverse side of the coin is uppermost. Prevailing uncertainties have given pause to potential buyers of " equity" securities, who are confirmed in their attitude of "masterly inactivity" by each fresh fall in quotations. Support for markets is almOst completely licking, and, while this attitude is maintained by the public and the professional operator, there is little hope of sustained recovery.
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