Evening star., 1948-05-15
Widest Buying
Since '29 Hits
Stock Market
3 Million Shares Sold,
But Gains Are Light;
Some Ronge Up to 81
By the Associated Press

NEW YORK, May 15.-The
public hit the stock market today
with the greatest flood of buying
orders since 1929, but prices re-
sponded only modestly after
Fridays sensational advance.
Volume .of around 100000 shares
was the greatest for Saturday in
Is years.
The new high-speed ticket tape
Jagged behind actual trap6actions
from start to finish of the two-hou1
trading session, as much as record
13 minutes at one time.
"Flash" quotations., used by the
Exchange when volume reaches such
dizzy levels gave the latest prices
for key stocks.
Many Holdings Sold.
Orders came from all over the
country. Despite the tremendous
lifting force of this demand, final
prices were up only few cents te
81 or more a share. At times some
prices advanced So a share.
Much of the selling came from
persons who figured they would sell
out while they were still able tc
make a profit. Some disposed OF
holdings which have laid on the
shelves for months or years.
Huge blocks of stocks changed
hands with increasing frequency anc
lashed the trading floor into frenzieo
activity as shouting brokers exc
cuted the orders. The 1929 boom
atmosphere was back again.
Orders to buy and sell had started
to pile upon the desks of brokerage
houses in the financial district i'm
mediately after the close yesterday
They rolled in again this morning
as investors and spectators climbed
on board what they apparently be-
lieved to be a roaring bull market
One block of $1,000 shares OF
Packard Motor Co. sold at s5 a
share, unchanged A lot of 1.10C
shares of international Harvester
was bought at $3.50, up 81.
Chrysler Joins Parade.
At the end of the first As min
utes of trading the ticker tape was 9
minutes behind, the widest lag since
1929 when the reporting mechanism
was a slower affair.
The gap between ticker prices and
flash" prices continued to widen
and the advance gained momentum
Near II o'clock gains ranged to
around 50 a share.
Chrysler Corp, strike-bound by
Is 900 employees, joined the parade
with a gain of $1.37 at S62.12
United States Steel was flashed
at $8O.75 for a 75-cent gain. Union
Carbide & Carbon added SITS at
S125.75.
A little of the buying spilled over
into the bond market, but trading
in that division was comparatively
tame business.
One of Busiest Days on Record.
The buying spree transformed
Wall Streets usually placid Satur-
day. Brokerage houses. which fol
long time have gotten along with
reduced staffs, were literally
sWamped as exhausted clerks copeo
with the mass of paper work in
volved.
At the end Of the first hour the
ticker tape had dropped behind floor
transactions by 10 minutes. Even al
that late period some stocks hao
not yet opened, apparently because
floor brokers were unable to get to-
gether on prices.
The driving force behind the mar
ket developed yesterday around !
o'clock. For a couple of months the
general level of prices had been
slowly edging forward until it ap-
preached what market technicians
call a resistance point" Students
of the widely held Dow theory be-
lieved that when that point was
passed, it would provide continuation
of the fact that the basic trend of
Sec STOCKS page A-2)