FINANCE AND INVESTMENT
GENTLY but surely the gilt-edged market is thawing. This is the most significant fact in Throgmorton Street. It means that after the groundswell which followed the storm the City is recovering some sort of poise. As I have main- tained in these notes, the minimum prices fixed on August 24th will be vindicated. About half-a-dozen stocks have already broken away from their minima and it is possible to sell War Loan, latterly regarded as hopelessly over-valued, without offering to purchase other stocks. All this with a further reduction in Bank Rate round the corner which may have taken place by the time these words are printed. I see no reason why holders of fixed-interest securities should get worried.
As for the general run of markets, they are not doing at all badly. Most of the big industrial shares have steadied up and there is modest buying of the selective type in coal, iron and steel and engineering shares, in commodity shares and American common stocks. This is as much, in present conditions, as anybody can reasonably expect, especially as it is still by no means easy to decide what kind of war we are going to face. Every investor believes that it will be a successful war, but there are many views upon its probable duration and its ultimate political and economic consequences. So perhaps it is as well if we save ourselves the trouble of too much thinking and help to bring success by making it our first .duty to do what we can for the Government's defence loans.
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