April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain.
TS Eliot’s words seem an apt appraisal of what has been going on this month. Talk is that the market has dried up significantly, so players will have been pleased that there was a raft of market-moving news out this week. Volumes still look quite subdued, but at least there’s been some price action.
There has been some early talk of a few green shoots appearing in the global economy – perhaps the dull roots are, as Eliot wrote, stirring. And I do have some anecdotal evidence that things may be picking up.
The owner of my local guitar shop says his turnover has been surprising resilient through 2009 and that the major problem he has now is getting fresh stock. I hear the same at my local bike shop. It seems that in both cases, the wholesalers have let their stocks dwindle because they anticipated a fall in demand. But the demand is there, which perhaps bodes well, but raises the question of whether or not the supply shortage will lead to upward price pressure.