Evening star., 1932-01-10
FOREIGN BUSINESS
SITUATION CLOUDED
BY SAGG|NG PRICES
IrreguIarity Is Noted as New
Year Begins in Various
Markets.
DEFLATI0N Is APPARENT
IN CENTERS OF TRADE
France Affected by General Condi-
tions in Europe-Reparations
Parleys Watched.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, January 9.-Cable and
| radio dispatches to the Business Week
give the following survey of business
| abroad for the week ending today:
Europe.-The old year closed general
iy steady and distinguished by unusual
ease on the principal money markets,
even In Germany. The new year, how
| ever, opened with considerable irregll-
larity, with activity almost at the van
lshlng point and marked by the alb
sence OF any of the usual optimism
Commodities are wobbly, with tin and
rubber particularly weak due to less
favorable statistical positions. Security
markets started the year narrow and
sagging, but mid-week rumors of pre-
| llminary reparations accord caused a.
sudden sharp rally.
Paris.-The new year already Is
| marked by the continuation of the de-
f1ation cycle through which other coun-
tries already largely have passed, but
which got really under way in France
only in the second half of 1881.
Unemployment Increases.
With the loss of competitive power In
| foreign trade resulting from internal
price initiation and aggravated by ster-
| ling depreciation and British tariffs;
prospects for the most unfavorable
| tourist year since the war; with de-
clining revenues and rising expenditures
and unemployment, the end of l932
may find the French fiscal and inter
| national balance Of payments in seri-
| GUS dlsequilibrium, with todays unprec-
edented gold boards outflowing even
more rapidly than they flowed in.
The year began with another IL per
cent additional registered unemploy-
! ment and with the announcement of
wage cuts in the coal and textile in
dustries, though the Paris Bourse has
rallied back slightly to only 48 per
| cent below last years level. The re-
| cent tariff orgy has been modified with
the exemption of duties on a series
OF rawstuffs including corn, coffee, cot
| tonseed oil, altmentary goods, non-
ferrous metals and few other items.
London.-Bustness and the stock mar
ket as the year opens are quiet, but
there Is some return of confidence
| largely due to the expectation that the
| Lausanne Conference will result in an
easing of the reparatton burden with
forced scaling down or fat repudia-
| ton of war debts. Income tax payments
for the first week in 1882 exceeded EIl
expectations. but there is still consid-
cradle doubt that the budget can be
pect of an underyield from this source
and almost surely there will be di-
mtnishing yield from the excise. Big
| business executives generally face 1882
in a mood of qualified optimism, in
sistent that the debts question is the
key to recovery, gratified over the sta
bility of internal purchasing power Of
the pound and the steadiness of the
public in the face of recurring crises.
Berlin.-With attention still riveted
on the coming reparations conference
and on the unfruitful Berlin stand
Stilf' parleys, the business outlook for
| 1882 is gloomier than ever. The at
tempt of the Communists to make capi-
tai out Of labor dissatisfaction over the
| new wage cuts by provoking strikes
| at the Hamburg docks, among shipping
| laborers and in the Ruhr coal region
| has utterly failed. Labor is showing
| remarkable discipline in spite of the
new privations imposed In the Is per
cent or more wage cuts which have
come since December 9. 1ndustrialists
are agreeably surprised over the
| smoothness with which wage reduc-
tions were promulgated throughout the
country.
Production Trends.
On the other hand, price reduction
is now meeting with growing resistance
among the manufacturers, necessitating
for the first time recourse to the govern
ment's special compulsorymeasures. Cur
| rent production trends are undeter-
minable owing to the prolonged holi-
day shutdown. The end of the year
money market Is striking easy, with
the private discount below per cent
and the gold status of the Reichsbank
balanced.