Business: Bull Saturday

An erroneous announcement from Washington one afternoon last week sent the stockmarket to a boiling close (see p. 10). Next morning, ignoring the fact that President Roosevelt was not preparing to cut the gold content of the dollar but was merely seeking to eliminate the gold clause from public and private contracts, speculators gave a mighty heave that shot prices to the best levels in two years. As the public rushed in to buy & buy & buy, transactions on the New York Stock Exchange swelled to an alltime Saturday record for a bull market—4,300,000 shares. Only once has that figure been exceeded—in the bear market of May 1930. At the end of the two-hour session, the new high-speed ticker was 41 minutes behind the floor. A. T. & T. jumped 5½ points to $119 a share, American Car & Foundry 5¼ points to $25.25, Liggett & Myers 4¼ points to $91.50, Union Pacific, which last week announced that within six months it would start operating a fast new streamlined train (see p. 12), shot up 10½ points to $112 a share. Most commodities were whirled up to the highest prices of the inflation boom.