SHARP FALL IN VALUES

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25250, 31 July 1947, Page 7

SHARP FALL IN VALUES

Wall Street And London

ANXIETY ABOUT BRITAIN (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8 pm.) NEW YORK, July 29. Although'the New York Stock Exchange opened with no seemingly marked effect as a result of the sharp break on the London Stock Exchange, a serious weakness developed later in the day, and stock broke sharply on a heavy volume of afternoon trading. Some stocks lost more than three points. It is estimated that to-day’s decline in value, B which is the severest in months, caused a drop of -over 1,000,000,000 dollars in the market value of all shares listed; In the last hours of trading the highspeed ticker tape fell behind the actual floor transactions.- Shares of every kind gave ground. “Sharp falls were noted in steel, automobiles, rubber, farm implements, and rails. Wall Street linked to-day’s decline with the two-day drop in the London stock market. The weakness there was believed to reflect growing fears that the British economic picture was deteriorating at an alarming rate. Brokers were influenced by the belief in high financial quarters that a turn for the worse for *he Empire would have profound repercussions throughout the world.

Reuters correspondent in Washington said that influential quarters viewed the London position with deep anxiety combined with a feeling of helplessness, as seemingly there was little that could be done to relieve the situation. Influential Americans were most sympathetic, but it was widely feared that there was virtually no chance of any further direct American aid to Britain after the present loan runs out in December or even earlier. Reuters correspondent adds that most American officials are worried. They sadly realise that the loan has not gone half-way towards achieving the purpose for which it was conceived. They are conscious that the Marshall plan may be too late to avert the first. major monetary crisis, although it was specifically intended to act as a preventive or cure for such grave ills.

The American people’s sympathy is not unmixed with criticism in a nation where the very word “Socialism” has a distasteful connotation. The proBritish Baltimore “Sun” said: “There is a curious feeling of inertia, compounded partly of frustration and partly of the vague feeling that they can somehow muddle through, which seems to have gotten hold of the British people ”

“Prices of British Government securities continued to slide this morning, but in the afternoon they staged a moderate recovery, which restored most quotations to the over-night l e r V S 1 -”. S ? 3 ; s “ The Times” (London), industrial markets were also reported to be somewhat harder just befora the close of business, but the improveP’Jht in prices was very small and it left them well below those ruling on Monday night.”