Wall Street: One Hectic Week

(See Cover) Tens of thousands of Americans crowded into the board rooms of the nation's 3,400 brokerage offices last week, gathered for a somber performance.

"Well," sighed one tape watcher in the Beverly Hills office of Ira Haupt & Co., "now I've got 30% less than I had last Friday." A young Chicago couple stared glumly at their living room wall, where a petit point sampler proclaimed "God Bless Fairchild Camera." Across the land, 15 million investors reluctantly emerged from a dreamland of perpetual capital gains and grimly focused their attention on the citadel of U.S. capitalism at Broad and Wall Streets in lower Manhattan.

There, behind its grey stone walls and Corinthian columns, the New York Stock Exchange was shuddering through its worst week since June, 1950.

In one hectic week, the paper value of the 1,545 stocks listed on the Big Board plunged by $30 billion — which is more than the combined gross national product of Australia, Sweden and Ireland. At week's end mighty IBM had fallen from its October high of 607 to 398∧ "X" marked the spot on the ticker tape where U.S. Steel was down from last year's high of 9¼ to 52¼. As wave after selling wave buffeted blue chips and glamour stocks indiscriminately, the Dow-Jones index of 30 key stocks tumbled almost 39 points last week to 611.88, the lowest level since Jan. 4, 1961. Following suit, stocks on the American Exchange and over-the-counter markets plummeted to similar lows.

Not even good news could arrest the drop. Oxford Paper and Sundstrand Corp. (machine tools) proudly posted dividend increases—and the stock of both companies continued to fall. Crown Cork & Seal trumpeted a 25% rise in secondquarter profits; next day, its stock plunged 3 points to a 1962 low of 95∧.

Touching Bottom. Day by day, this is how it went on Wall Street:

MONDAY, May 21: The slowest trading day in ten months. Three stocks fall for every two that rise. Tobacco stocks lead the downswing, and the Dow-Jones industrial index slips 2.11 points.

TUESDAY: Volume of trading increases 60% as prices continue to fall. With nearly 1,000,000 shares changing hands in the last half-hour, 982 issues fall, and only 141 rise. Only significant gainers are the gold mining stocks—an ominous sign that some investors are betting on a devaluation of the dollar. The Dow-Jones index plummets 12.25, its sharpest decline for a single day in 13 months.

WEDNESDAY: Trading is more frenzied.

Volume rises another 50% to 5,450,000 shares, and so many sell orders swamp the ticker that it lags behind for two hours and 28 minutes. A total of 460 stocks sink to new lows for the year. The Dow-Jones index loses another 9.82 points, to 626.52, its lowest in 16 months.

THURSDAY: The market opens strong, and there is brave talk of rally in the air. In the first hour of trading, the Dow-Jones recaptures 5.16. But then the sellers take over. At the close, 442 stocks are at new lows for the year. The Dow-Jones is off 3.96.

FRIDAY: Selling fever rises. As volume climbs to a 14-month high of 6,380,000 shares, the tape runs progressively later, lags 18 minutes behind at the close.