Financial Notes
TIM OUTLOOK FOR MARKETS.
THE few weeks _ immediately preceding Christmas are generally a dull time in the Stock Exchange, and appearances this year rather suggest that the dullness might become so pro- nounced as to constitute real weakness, especially in the gilt- edged section, owing to pressure of realizations for balance- sheet and Income Tax purposes. The pronouncements by President Hoover and Mr. Mellon, however, produced a decided change of sentiment in company with Mr. Chamber- lain's confident declaration on the prospective Budget position for the current year. The absence of any further increase in the Fiduciary Note circulation, too, has reacted favourably on foreign centres, and the value of sterling has risen sharply. The Hoover and Mellon pronouncements were undoubtedly intended more for the education of the American public on the subject of War Debts than as a gesture of benevolence to Europe, and it is evident that the administration will have a hard task to convert the American public to a* spirit of self- interested forgiveness; Gilt-edged stocks have fallen back a little from the best levels, but-hopes run high that an improve- ment in foreign confidence in -sterling may possibly result in (Continued on page vi.)
Previous page