CONDITIONS IN AMERICA

Taranaki Daily News, 5 December 1930, Page 16

CONDITIONS IN AMERICA

SOME ENCOURAGING SIGNS.

BETTER DEMAND FOR MATERIALS.

Some encouragement is to be derived from business developments in the-last I few weeks, states the Guaranty Trust ■Company of New York iii the October issue of its monthly review of business I end financial conditions in the United J States. The pronounced recession that I characterised business activity in almost all lines throughout the late spring and! summer has given way to irregularity, I with, positive improvement in some branches of trade and industry. I ‘'On the whole, the behaviour of com-r modify prices in >the last.three months I has presented an encouraging cpntpast to the consistent weakness that was evident during the first seven months of the year. Recent movements have covered a comparatively , narrow range, suggesting that the readjustment, if not actually completed, is at ,any rate far along I on its course. This view is strengthened by the attitude of leading consumers of industrial raw. materials, who. have shown an increasing tendency to cover their needs at existing prices. _ “Among the most encouraging business •reports, that have appeared are -.the improvement in; sale of new life insurance dicin'’ ; September, the. increase in raw cotton, consumption, the rising level of residential construction contracts, the . advance, in foreign trade, and the large amount of-current dividend"payments as compared with the total a year ago, notwithstanding ’the numerous reductions and omissions of dividends recently reported. In connection with the textile situation, it is worth noting that both sales-and shipments of standard cotton ch ths -last month were greatly in excess of production, re suiting in a marked improvement in the statistical position of'the industry. ' “Recent financial events ‘have been such as to confirm the general expectation ’that the money markets will con- ; tinue ■in the easy state that has been shown for several months. There has been a considerable seasonal increase in commercial bank loans, but it has been largely offset by the decline in security Ibaris, due to the downward movement of stock, prices. The active expert gold movement apparently has def- - initely ceased. In the absence of an unexpectedly large expansion .in' the use 1 of commercial bank credit m the near ’ future it is reasonable to assume that • exceptionally low rates will remain the 1 outstanding feature of the money situ- ’ ation for some time.”