Stock prices moved higher today on the belief that the international political situation has eased. Trading was above that of Friday. The announcement that prices of copper, lead and zinc have been increased stimulated non-ferrous metals, Favourable factors today included: steel operations touching a new high for ihe year. However, some quarters believe that the pace of business recovery is slowing down, whilst business loans are failing to expand.
By courtesy of S. E. Levy & Ca.
War fears precipitated the worst break in the market since March. Had the market possessed the stamina apparent prior to the prominence of European developments, it ought logically to have displayed greater resistance. The sudden collapse may be attributed to a weak technical Position, while the disappointing action of the market is chiefly the result of domestic rather than foreign selling.
The lack of buying by the "business man", which had been a defect in the quality of the summer rise, was worthy of note last week. This reluctance, when some approximation of the fourth quarter outlook has been available, may be due to perplexity over the degree of the earnings' improvement ahead.
Profitless prosperity is a probable answer to íhe margin of profit in major industries, conditions in which are still under normal, owing to the volume of sales being maintained by holding down prices.
Conditions in the steel industry are disturbing, with the price and wage problems still unsolved.
Barron's Weekly Index, during the past three weeks, has shown signs of levelling off. The revival has been mainly in consumer goods, while heavy goods are still lagging behind,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.