• FINANCIAL NOTES
COMMODITY PRICES RISING.
IN one important aspect the financial background has per.. ceptibly improved during the past week. The prices of primary commodities have risen. A week ago commodity price move- ments merely reflected the moods of the London and New York Stock Exchanges. The reverse is now nearer to the truth. New buying has appeared in the commodity markets, and the shares of the very large number of companies connected with the production of metals, rubber, cotton and wheat have become more active.
Copper, nearly always a favourite counter with the speculator, has led the way, because it has become apparent that Japan has been buying copper, presumably for war purposes, on a very substantial scale and because American rearmament should entail a rising consumption of metals. Thus copper has risen to over £44 per ton compared with the recent low point of £36 16s. 3d. last November. But there seems little risk of a repetition of last spring's commodity boom.. Pro- ducers have enormously extended their production capacity and can now quickly meet any increased demand
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