Financial Notes
AFTER THE COAL .SETTIp8P.NT. Ox the Stock Markets the effect of important developments is not infrequently discounted in advance. Such has been the case in the matter of the virtual termination of the stoppage of of the coal output. It could scarcely have been otherwise , when it is remembered that throughout the past eight months, markets, on the whole, have been optimistic with regard to a settlement before the end of the year. True the " settlement" so far as may be judged is not of that complete and satisfactory character which had been hoped for, but in the main it may be said that the resumption of work is really due to an increasing recognition—however unconscious—of stern economic facts which to many have, of course, been obvious from the beginning of the trouble, and it is this " facing of facts " which is urgently needed. Prices, however, of securities during the current week have not risen greatly, though a rather better tendency has been apparent in some of the shares of the railway companies and of the iron, steel and coal shares. High-class investment stocks also have held there own buying, helped by the somewhat more favourable monetary outlook.
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