Bull Markets, Asset Inflation and Obscene Profits. It was an indicator of prosperity and economic good times. It is claimed by some that any increases in stock prices are like the tulip prices on Holland during the great bubble that collapsed. Michael Coburn has even formulated the theory that all government deficit spending must result in inflation.
People buy a stock now if they think the current price is low relative to future earnings.
And the big surge in recent stock prices have been in the internet biotechnology, and other high technology corporate stocks. It was an indicator of prosperity and economic good times. The crash had to happen anyway. Very little if any connection. The stock market in 1929 was a bubble.