But he also took advantage of the wild speculative fever in the vintage photography market.

"If this brings a flight to quality in stocks and blows out some of the speculative fever, I think that would be a good thing."

Oil was one of the few items to escape the speculative fever, but analysts said prices predated the movement with rises last week.

Other problems have been caused by the growing number of neophyte traders, many caught in the speculative fever of recent months.

"You obviously have a kind of speculative fever," he said.

Most high wine prices, however, are driven by the speculative fever currently gripping the market.

Also one cannot fault him for the speculative fever in the 1920s.

There is a spot of speculative fever, the same type that infected the market at the end of the 1990's.

Still, yesterday's action had more than a touch of last winter's speculative fever to it.

The giant takeover offers in recent weeks have touched off a burst of speculative fever on Wall Street.