Pop

Wall Street's reaction to events in Cleveland last week could hardly be called a Landon boom. The Dow-Jones industrial stock averages rose 3 1/2 points to 154, utility averages about a point to 32, rail averages less than a point to 46 1/2. Credit for even these gains had to be divided with a big batch of favorable business items, particularly in retail trade, which had been rolling at the best levels since 1930 and was ready-set for distribution of the Bonus, a $1,900,000,000 shot in the retail arm.

But if nomination of Alfred Mossman Landon did not bring forth a boom, anti-Roosevelt Wall Street at least did honors with a respectable pop. The stockmarket managed to put on two successive million-share days before slumping back into the dullness of the past six weeks. Businessmen and brokers were pleased with, if not excited by, the G.O.P. platform. Mr. Landon's talk of gold had no market magic.

What Cleveland really gave to U. S. Business was something to hope for instead of to hope against. Odds on President Roosevelt's re-election dropped from 2-to-1 to as low as 8-to-5. There was almost no money actually bet, however. Market-minded people preferred to buy deflated shares in utility holding companies which have suffered from Democratic power policies. They figure that if President Roosevelt is reelected, utility companies will be little, if any, worse off than they are now.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.