TRADING WEEK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 September 1938, Page 6

TRADING WEEK

BRITISH INVESTORS WAITING FOR FACTS EFFECTS OF INTERNATIONAL UNCERTAINTY HEAVY GERMAN BUYING OF MATERIALS (By Telegraph—Press Association.) (Copyright. (Recd This Day, 11.20 a.m.) LONDON, September 2. Resisting a welter of rumours and counter rumours, investors continue to await definite facts as to the outcome of the Czech crisis before rushing the markets. Business, therefore, remained idle throughout the week, but the tone was steady. The seriousness of the situation, however, was reflected in the reaction of gilt-edged stocks. Dominion issues shared in the irregularity of the gilt-edged market. Political fears caused industrial shares to sag. Economic developments continue to be unfavourable, as is evidenced in the fall of sterling, a severe further decline in rail and traffic securities and the accentuation of the recession of export trades. Commodity shares are quiet, but rubber shares are steady. Commodity prices are irregular, mainly as a result of international uncertainties. Evidence is accumulating that an abnormal restocking movement is going on in Germany. The Rubber Bulletin shows that German imports for the first six months of 1938 totalled 54,539 tons, compared with 52,319 tons for the corresponding period last year, when imports w |re double the normal consumption level. The Imperial Economic Committee comments on Germany’s exceptional imports of greasy wool in the first six months of 1938, which were nearly 50 per cent above the 1937 figure, though German exports of wool products declined. The implication of these abnormal movements is either that substitutes are proving disappointing, or that huge stocks are being laid up for international reasons.