WISE IN VESTIVI8NT
As I anticipated three weeks ago, recovery in-the stock markets is proving a tedious process. Tvio of the market's bogeys— the growth of profits tax and the hold price scare—have been laid, but the brutal facts remain that industrial profits are to be taxed and that one day or other we shall have to face the problem of fixing the price of -gold in terms of paper currencies. In itself neither of those problems need dismay investors, but what with fresh tension in, international politics
andwoild-wide wonderings about the stability of trade pro- . ty itself, I am not surprised that investment psychology is still dominated by vague fears. Added to which, money has been lost, 'bringing a forceful rethitidet That capital appreciation is no longer automatic but may give place to a fall in values of quite substantial proportions.
Having sketched in the dismal aspects of the investment picture, I must add that I have not Chafiged my view that the trend of stoat markets, with the notable 'exception of gilt-edged and other fixed-interest securities, is still upward. Obviously, a stage has beei 'reached when. §-peculators must tread warily and investors will have to discriminate more carefully, but there is nothing in the trade situation, either here or overseas, to suggest that stock markets will not remain healthy and provide moderate scope for capital gains. Recovery, when it comes, will be initiated by institutional and other professional buyers who are prepared to take a hand whenever the outlook clears, bin the clouds on the international horizon will have to lift a little before a sustained buying movement sets in.
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