FINANCE AND INVESTMENT
As everybody hoped and most of us expected, the £300,000,000 War Loan has been launched successfully with very little fuss. The terms were right, in the sense of being closely adjusted to existing market prices, the Treasury has chosen its moment well and the investor has made the appropriate response. How large the applications have actually been it is impossible to say just yet, but I have little doubt that the full amount has been covered quite comfort- ably without any special whip-up among the banks or the Public Departments. That is what one hoped would happen, and in my view the market is right in treating this first large-scale loan operation as a complete success. If the Finnish news had not broken, prices would probably have responded fairly vigorously but as things are political un- certainty is restraining fresh buying. Markets are strong enough, however, in a technical sense, to move up again given anything like a reasonable chance now that the first big hurdle has been taken in such good style.
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