Stock Market

Zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom--louder and louder rumbled the big bass drum of Prosperity where they were beating it (TIME, Nov. 17) in Wall Street. The great bull days became a great bull week, the greatest in 20 years. In ten post-election days, 18,717,732 listed stock shares changed hands in the Big Bull Ring. Of these millions, over eleven and a half went in the week of Nov. 10, more than ever before save in the panicky May weeks of 1901. A total of 689 issues were dealt in--a new high for all time. Wall Street tried to assess the market's appreciation while the booming continued and the rough 'figures were: Total appreciation 3 billions

Average advance 5 points

Rise of rails 3.97 points

Rise of industrials 5.55 points

Rise of 50 representative stocks. 4.76 points

Physically, the street was frightfully overtaxed. The whole country was buying. Wire houses had suddenly to cope with 300% of new business. All hands labored late. Jobs went begging. Night shifts were re- sorted to. Yet no great excitement accompanied all these exertions.

The customers came in throngs, but calm throngs. It was the public's market, with a ticker 15 or 20 minutes late and no frenzied strain watching for the plays of professionals on the floor. The usual large figures were pushed right out of the picture.

Who was spending? As nearly as could be told, the small investor was following his large traders, wealthy men reassured of the immediate future; the wealthy lay figure was liquidating his pool; the foreigner was stepping in, especially for rails. It was free and open spending without cliques and market-fights.

Who was reaping? Fortunes were a making, but not many, men said. The pools, of course, came in for the main harvest. William C. Durant, motors man, was known to have profited on paper by between 10 and 12 millions in his remarkable "one-man pool" in U. S. Cast Iron Pipe.

Well-defined lulls of profit-taking came, but still the booming reawoke. The end was not yet.