WALL STREET: Change to the Black

Wartime prosperity even caught up with the New York Stock Exchange. In the red for six years (to the tune of $816,000 in 1942), the Exchange last year actually turned up a comfortable profit of $676,500.

Wartime trading had boosted the volume of shares from 125,700,000 traded in 1942 to 278,750,000 in 1943. This was less than one-third of booming 1928. The price of Exchange membership jumped, too; from the 40-year low of $17,000 in 1942, the cost of a seat had risen to a $47,000 high last year (in 1929, $625,000).

The New York Curb Exchange showed $121,855 profits—the first profit since 1937. Curb trading increased during 1943 by nearly 50,000,000 shares. Seats on the Curb Exchange are now selling for $8,000; in 1929, they cost as high as $400,000 apiece.