A GOLD RUSH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 August 1938, Page 6

A GOLD RUSH

KEEN DEMAND IN LONDON THIS WEEK CENTRAL EUROPEAN FEARS & HOARDING. STOCK & OTHER MARKETS DULL. By Telegraph —Press Association. Copyright. (Recd This Day', 11.15 a.m.) , LONDON, August 5. Both the gold and silver markets were frantically active in the past week, though there are signs that the peak has been passed. Prices have been consistently adverse to sterling. The gold rush has been partly due to Central European political fears, but this is purely a hoarding demand and is less significant than the growing conviction that sterling is over-valued against the dollar. The Stock Exchange suffered from the political holiday, apathy and the lack of a lead from Wall Street, but there was little selling pressure. Giltedged stocks lacked support, old Consols declining on persistent French selling for gold speculation, but ended the week steadier. The industrial market was sluggish, with a trend downward. Cqpper, tin and rubber shares are quiet. The holidays restricted business in commodities. There has been no definite trend in cotton, and grain prices are lower in expectation of larger crops. The “economist” comment on the heavy decline in wool cheques, declaring that the position will be more difficult in 1938-39, as the greater part of the reserves farmers had accumulated in 1936 and 1937 are exhausted. The immediate outlook for the wool market, therefore, does not provide a favourable indicator- for the purchasing power of the Dominion.