Purely speculative transactions in securities, based on contango facilities, are
undoubtedly on a much smaller scale than in the pre-War days, and, by reason of that fact, markets are somewhat less sensitive to external influences, whether in foreign or domestic polities. Nowadays, when such influences are more than usually active, the tendency is rather to occasion a pause in the purchase of stocks than any rush to sell, and the last week has been an example of this. With a Conference proceeding at Geneva calculated to affect the political outlook in Europe, with a revolution proceeding in Spain, and with coal conferences at home determining issues vitally affecting the domestic and industrial outlook, it is scarcely surprising that dealings on the Stock Exchange should have been of a restricted character. It is not so much that there is acute anxiety as to coal conference -decisions occasioning any particular selling movement in stocks, but on the other hand it is felt that the precise direction of Stock Exchange activity in the immediate. future may be very largely determined by the outcome of the Geneva Conference and the nearer conferences at home concerning the coal dispute.
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