Wall Street: A Hope Market

It has been clear for some months now that the bird of Wall Street is the dove. So it was no real surprise last week when new hope for peace in Viet Nam gave the stock market an exuberant lift. A paroxysm of trading twice shattered daily volume records on the New York Stock Exchange and sent share prices up enough to erase a third of the past winter's losses. Then, at week's end, the market settled back and waited to react again to events.

As stock prices have meandered near the bottom of their winter...