SPECULATIVE Ac - i.
A week ago I referred to the tendency on the part of the public to extend their activities to speculative descriptions and during the past week the feature has been the revival of interest in oil shares. It is possible, of course, that there may be some special development accounting for the revival in interest, but I am inclined to think that it has been a case of speculators looking round for markets where there was thought to be undue depreciation, for the fall in oil shares has, of course, been very considerable. At all events, a good deal of the buying has been of a fairly influential character and extensive gains have occurred in the leading descriptions during the week. The further rise in the price of rubber itself has kept the rubber share market busy, but owing to the extreme activity of recent weeks fresh buying has been pretty well offset by realizations. Consequently the net improvements for the week are not great. The undertone of the market, however, remains good and it seems most unlikely that .the end of the movement has arrived. Meanwhile, our American friends seem piqued by reason of the rise in the price -of the commodity and it must, of course, be hoped in the general interest that the price will not be forced unduly high. At a moment, however, when America piles up her tariff walls against imports, at the same time insisting upon Europe's payment of her debts, it is rather comforting to feel that in the case of rubber the present high price is helping us a little in diseharging our A. W. K.
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