FINANCIAL NOTES
FALL IN GOLD SHARES.
THE outstanding feature of markets during the past week has been the heavy fall in Gold shares. Ostensibly the slump was entirely due to reports cabled from Washington to the effect that President Roosevelt was about to authorise a reduction in the buying price of 35 dollars per ounce of gold. Had the report been true the matter would, of course, have been a serious one, as the buying price in the United States is now the principal standard of the value of gold. The rumour, therefore, was sufficient to occasion a heavy fall in all mining shares from A to Z, the slump being intensified by the dis- closure of weak specilative positions in Johannesburg and to some extent in the London market. Following upon official or semi-official denials of the reports from Washington, there was a sharp rally for a time, but the recovery did not last, the nerves of holders having been badly shaken, while it was also evident that in Johannesburg, at all events, the speculative account was very large and in places very weak. Nor were matters improved by the fact that with the approach of April loth all markets here became in a more or less sensitive condition owing to Budget uncertainties, for next Tuesday is Budget Day in the House of Commons.
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DUNLOP RUBBER PROt.le.S. S.
The directors of the Dunlop Rubber Company can be congratulated upon the very complete form in which the accounts are made up, and this year the report includes a four- year comparison of results. An examination of this statement shows that the profits have recovered to above the 1933 level, even though they do not now include profits made in Germany. Moreover, it must be remembered that the company is a large producer of rubber, and the year's improvement has been achieved notwithstanding the sharp rise in the price of the commodity and also the continued upward tendency of cotton, another raw material essential for the company's business. The increased turnover in the home market is, no doubt, due to the greater general prosperity, while the report also shows that the business of the Dunlop group has broadened, with improved results in some of the smaller subsidiaries. All the Preference dividends for -the Dunlop Cotton Mills, Dunlop India, and Dunlop Plantations Companies have been paid out of their own profits, and the Plantations Company has also repaid £11,035 in respect of payments made by the parent company under guarantee for previous years. The net profit for the year was £1,503,000, as compared with £1,288,000 for the previous year. The sum of £too,000 is now allocated to Reserve as compared with nil a year previously, £150,000 is placed to Contingencies Reserve against £400,000 last year, while the balance carried forward of just under £590,000 is practically identical with the figure of last year.
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