The night before Halloween in 1938, Orson Welles shocked the nation with a realistic radio drama about a Martian Invasion, based on H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds.  The next day, the New York Stock Exchange unveiled a 15-point program to protect investors from alien forces (actually, it was a new securities law). After all, it was the ninth full year of the Depression.

On October 31, 1868, Wall Street set a new weekly volume record of 647,000 shares.  Today, that many shares trade every 15 seconds.  By the way, it was yet another October panic week, as Erie Railroad sank to $38, half of what it was in the Spring of 1868.   Some things never change.

1978: The Dollar & the Dow Both Sink

In the three weeks ending October 31, 1978, the Dow fell 12% (from 901 to 792).  On the same Halloween day, the dollar set a new record low.  The causes included fears that oil prices would keep climbing, and news that the Treasury was asking the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for help. 

This was a time of desperate moves by President Carter and Congress, trying to halt the dollar's decline and inflation's inexorable increases.  The dollar fell by two-thirds in the 1970s.  The Swiss franc traded 4.3 to the dollar ($0.23) in 1972, and rose to 1.3 per $ in 1978 ($0.77).

October/November Transition Week: Farewell, Cruel October

September and October are the two worst months of the year, but those two painful months end today.  However, October's turning point—from bear to bull market—usually comes sometime in the middle of the month, not on its last day.   The post-World War II bear markets bottomed out and turned bullish during a dozen Octobers, starting in 1946.  The most dramatic turns were:

• October 22, 1957
• October 25, 1960
• October 27, 1962 (after the Cuban Missile Crisis)
• October 7, 1966
• October 3, 1974
• October 19, 1987
• October 11, 1990
• October 27, 1997
• October 8, 1998
• October 15, 1999
• October 10, 2002
• October 10, 2008

Several Unusual Deaths Fell on Halloween: Spooky!

• 1926: Harry Houdini died of an appendicitis, after being slugged in the stomach a week earlier.
• 1984: Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards.
• 1987: Joseph Campbell, philosopher and mythologist, died while rising to speak, at age 83.
• 1988: John Houseman, actor (Paper Chase, Fog), died of spinal cancer at 86.
• 1991: Joseph Papp, Broadway producer (A Chorus Line), died of cancer at 70.
• 1993: Federico Fellini, Italian director (La Dolce Vida), died of a stroke at 73. 
• And that same night, River Phoenix, a young actor (Stand By Me), died of a drug overdose at 23.

1922: Four Notable People Born on Mussolini's First Day in Power

On this date in 1922, Fascist leader Benito Mussolini became the premier of Italy.  On the same day, at least four future famous folks were born: (1) Actress Barbara Bel Geddes (Vertigo; TV: Miss Ellie in Dallas); (2) former Cambodian king, president, and premier Norodom Sihanouk (author: My War With the CIA).  A little known fact is that as a youngster, Prince Sihanouk was also a jazz fan who played saxophone.  Perhaps he was aware that two great American tenor saxophonists were also born the same day in 1992: (3) Illinois Jacquet and (4) Ted Nash.

Closing Quotes

Since this is the last day of October, let us bid adieu to the cruelest month with two epigrams:

"There is something in October that sets the gypsy blood astir." --William Bliss Carman (1861-1929) in A Vagabond Song.

"October is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks.  The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August & February." -- from The Tragedy of Pudd'n'head Wilson (1894) by Mark Twain.

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