Business & Finance: Stock Market Jamboree

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Madness. The frenzy of trading on the New York Stock Exchange last week surpassed all previous spectacles. From the floor a ululant howling roared; brokers milled around; pages and messengers doubled around huddles of bidding brokers; brokers chanted a litany of bids & asks at each other, and sweated like the marching monks in Tannhäuser. Visitors in the iron-railed balcony peeked at the madness below for a few minutes, and were politely hurried out by grey-dressed attendants. When Friday was done the brokers were glad that the Exchange governors had decreed Saturday a day of rest. In five days of trading they had handled 21,352,200 shares, thus:

Break-Down. Wednesday, with 4,820,840 shares, marked a new high record for a day's trading. More important it marked the worst break in stock market prices of the present expansion. They had been dancing an exuberant tarantella; they suddenly clattered into a noisy breakdown. They dropped without warning 5 to 40 points. American Telephone & Telegraph stock, one of the few important ones listed, not only did not wobble, but even rose during the week. But then directors had decreed $185,000,000 of new stock at par to shareholders. General Motors held unusually firm, considering that it has been a "favorite." Chrysler and Studebaker stocks tended to rise. Hudson Motors also made a good record, and Mack Trucks, Hupmobile, Nash, Packard.

Shut-Down. Last week the New York Stock Exchange was again closed on Saturday so that brokers' clerks could catch somewhat up on their back records.

But within the buildings of the neighborhood grey-faced clerks squealed instructions at each other; boys with skins like cellar-grown mushrooms pattered to and fro; nervous bookkeepers scratched names of stocks and bond issues along blue cross lines, drew pothooks down between red and green lines. Theirs was the moil of days, nights* and holidays caused by 3 and 4 million share days.

Yet, last week, surcease seemed in sight. The governors of the Exchange ordered that for a time trading, which begins at 10 a. m., shall stop at 2:00 p. m., instead of at 3 :00 p. m. In four hours less shares can be traded than in five; clerks will have less to record. London long has had four-hour trading days. Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago exchanges may also close early, not because they are frustrated by business but because their activity depends on New York.