TV Fever

The glamour of television has kept the industry's stocks well out in front of 1950's bull market. But even bulls were amazed at the scramble to buy TV stocks last week. What started the rush were reports by Admiral Corp. and Motorola Inc. that their first-quarter sales were double and their profits triple the rate for 1949's same period. The stock of Motorola, which reported estimated earnings of $3.50 a share for the first quarter, shot up 8 points in one day's trading to 50 1/8. Admiral, with earnings of $2.08, saw its stock rise 3 1/4 points to 37 7/8 and help carry up the whole television list. By day's end, the New York Stock Exchange had rung up the biggest trading volume (2,750,000 shares) in three months. More than one-third of it was in television shares.

But Wall Street's bulls were not too happy over the television frenzy. It had kept the rest of the market marking time. And compared to the earnings of many blue chips some of the TV shares seemed overpriced. At week's end, with the Dow-Jones industrial average up only 1.93 for the week (to 214.48), the bull market was still pawing indecisively.

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