Tense and nervous, speculators crowded the Chicago wheat pit one morning last week, waiting for the opening gong. When it rang, they furiously began waving orders to buy. The price of wheat futures rose by the hour, jumping as much as 8¾¢ a bushel. Professional speculators, who had been selling wheat short while the price was edging down, took heavy losses.
Wrong Guess. The bears had made a bad guess. They had been banking on the fact that U.S. grain elevators were so clogged with surplus wheat from last year (TIME, June 6) that farmers would not be able to...
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