stock-car racing Form of automobile racing. Popular in the U.S., it features cars that conform externally to standard U.S. commercial mod¬ els and are raced usually on oval, paved tracks. The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), founded in 1947 in Daytona Beach, Fla., gave the sport its first formal organization. The Daytona 500 is the sport’s premier race.
stock exchange or stock market or (in continental Europe) Bourse Organized market for the sale and purchase of securities (see security) such as stocks and bonds. Trading is done in various ways: it may occur on a continuous auction basis, it may involve brokers buying from and selling to dealers in certain types of stock, or it may be conducted through specialists in a particular stock. Some stock exchanges, such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), sell seats (the right to trade) to a limited number of members who must meet eligibility requirements. Stocks must likewise meet and maintain certain requirements or risk being delisted. Stock exchanges differ from country to country in eligibility requirements and in the degree to which the government participates in their management. The London Stock Exchange, for example, is an inde¬ pendent institution, free from government regulation. In Europe, mem¬ bers of the exchanges are often appointed by government officials and have semigovemmental status. In the U.S., stock exchanges are not directly run by the government but are regulated by law. Technological developments have greatly influenced the nature of trading. In a tradi¬ tional full-service brokerage, a customer placed an order with a broker or member of a stock exchange, who in turn passed it on to a specialist on the floor of the exchange, who then concluded the transaction. By the 21st century, increased access to the Internet and the proliferation of electronic communications networks (ECNs) altered the investment world. Through e-trading, the customer enters an order directly on-line, and software auto¬ matically matches orders to achieve the best price available without the intervention of specialists or market makers. In effect, the ECN is a stock exchange for off-the-floor trading.
Stock Market Crash of 1929 Economic event in the U.S. that pre¬ cipitated the Great Depression. The U.S. stock market expanded rapidly in the late 1920s and reached a peak in August 1929, when prices began to decline while speculation increased. On October 18 the stock market began to fall precipitously. On the first day of real panic, October 24, known as “Black Thursday,” a record 12,894,650 shares were traded. Banks and investment companies bought large blocks of stock to stem the panic, but on October 29, “Black Tuesday,” 16 million shares were traded and prices collapsed. The crash began a 10-year economic slump that affected all the Western industrialized countries.
stock option Contractual agreement entitling the holder to buy or sell a share of stock at a designated price for a specified period of time, regardless of changes in its market price during that period. The various kinds of stock options include put and call options, which may be pur¬ chased in anticipation of changes in stock prices, as a means of specu¬ lation or hedging. A put gives its holder an option to sell, or put, shares to another party at a fixed price even if the market price declines. A call gives the holder an option to buy, or call for, shares at a fixed price even if the market price rises. U.S. corporations often issue stock options to executives as a form of compensation in addition to salary, on the theory that an option is an incentive to improve the company’s business and thus raise the value of its stock; at times such options have been far more valu¬ able than the salary itself.
Stockhausen \ , shtok- I hau-z3n\ / Karlheinz (b. Aug. 22, 1928, Modrath, near Cologne, Ger.) German composer. Orphaned during World War II, he supported himself with odd jobs (including jazz pianist) before entering Cologne’s State Academy for Music in 1947. After hearing Oliv¬ ier Messiaen’s music at Darmstadt in 1951, he began studying with the composer and experimenting with SERIAUSM. His early works include Kon- trapunkte and Klavierstiicke I-IV (1952-53). He also became involved with musique concrete , a technique using recorded sounds as raw mate¬ rial; his remarkable Song of the Youths (1956) used a highly processed
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Stockholm ► stomach I 1825
recording of a boy soprano mixed with electronic sounds. His extensions of serialism continued in pieces such as Zeitmasse (1956) and Gruppen (1957), and he became a leading avant-garde spokesman. His Momente (1964) influentially applied serialism to groups of sounds rather than single pitches, and he began incorporating aleatory (chance) elements as well. From the late 1960s he conceived ever grander schemes, some incor¬ porating literature, dance, and ritual, as in the Light series (from 1977).
Stockholm City (pop., 2000 est.: city, 750,348; urban agglom.: 1,660,700), capital of Sweden. Built on numerous islands and peninsulas connected by old bridges and modem overpasses, Stockholm is regarded as one of the most beautiful capitals in the world. According to tradition, Swedish ruler Birger Jarl founded Stockholm c. 1250. In the Middle Ages it became Sweden’s chief trade port, and in 1436 the capital. After years of conflict between the Swedes and Danes, Gustav I Vasa liberated the city from Danish rule in 1523. It developed rapidly in the mid-17th cen¬ tury as Sweden became a great power, and it was Sweden’s cultural cen¬ tre by the 18th century. It was extensively redeveloped in the 19th century. The second largest port in Sweden (Goteborg being the first), it is the country’s leading cultural, commercial, financial, and educational centre.
stocking frame Knitting machine invented in 1589 that produced a stocking stitch. Knitted fabrics are constructed by the interlocking of a series of loops made from one or more yarns, with each row of loops caught into the previous row; the stocking frame allowed production of a complete row of loops at one time. The modern knitting industry, with its highly sophisticated machinery, has grown from this simple device.
Stockport City and metropolitan borough (pop., 2001: 284,544), north¬ western England. First chartered in 1220, the original settlement was built in a gorge where the Rivers Tame and Goyt meet to form the River Mer¬ sey; the modern town has spread over higher ground. Cotton spinning was important in the 19th century; in the 20th century diversification brought electronics and heavy engineering industries. Part of the metropolitan area of Greater Manchester, the metropolitan borough includes, in addition to Stockport proper, the urban area of Cheadle, the towns of Bramhall, Rom- iley, and Marple, and areas of open countryside.
Stockton City (pop., 2000: 243,771), central California, U.S. Located on the San Joaquin River, Stockton is connected to San Francisco Bay by the San Joaquin’s 78-mi (126-km) deepwater channel; it is one of the state’s two inland ports. Stockton was founded in 1847 and grew rapidly as a miners’ supply point during the 1849 gold rush. With the introduc¬ tion of irrigation and the arrival of the railroad, it grew as a market for farm produce and wines. The completion of the channel in 1933 made it a major port as well as a supply depot for U.S. Pacific military operations.
Stockton, Robert F(ield) (b. Aug. 20, 1795, Princeton, N.J., U.S.—d. Oct. 7,1866, Princeton) U.S. naval officer. He joined the U.S. navy and rose to the rank of commander (1838). When the Mexican War broke out, he took command of U.S. land and naval forces in present-day California and proceeded to capture Los Angeles, a Mexican stronghold, on Aug. 13, 1846. Four days later, he set up a civil government and formally annexed California to the U.S., naming himself governor. Along with Col. Stephen Kearny and his troops he defeated an uprising by native Mexicans and ceded the entire province to the U.S. In 1850 he resigned from the navy and was elected to the U.S. Senate. Stockton, Calif., is named in his honour.