Outside the meeting rooms of the Las Vegas Hilton, where 2,000 well-heeled stock-market investors prowl for new ideas, the pay phones are not sweaty with fevered trading. A California broker ties up one line grousing about a "chisel-wad" client. The other phones are empty. Nobody's buying.
It is "Whipsaw City" on the stock exchanges, in the words of one of the esteemed financial-newsletter editors speaking at this three-day "money show." Up 25 points Monday, down 20 Tuesday. The common opinion, derived by computer analysis of 50 leading indicators or by going out and staring at the moon, depending on one's methodology,...