WALL STREET: Prosperity Blunts 'Mayday's' Edge

After almost six years of drift, depression and disaster, prosperity seems to have returned in force to the U.S. stock market. Paced by a swelling optimism that the worst of the recession could well be over, Wall Street's fortunes have turned decidedly upward. Last week, in a bullish performance typical of many since the beginning of the year, the Dow Jones industrial average spurted 29 points to 819, a high for the year, before backing off to 808 on Friday. Still, that was 230 points above the widely watched index's twelve-year low...