Stocks Manage Modest Gain in Quiet Trading
Stocks posted another modest gain in quiet trading Wednesday after pulling back from their best levels of the session.
Steel, aerospace and telephone issues led the gainers. But auto stocks fell after major domestic car makers reported lower sales for early August.
The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials rose 1.68 to 1,316.98 after edging up 1.01 points Tuesday. The Dow Jones transportation and utility averages gained a fraction.
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Advances overall led declines by about four to three on the New York Stock Exchange, whose composite index rose 0.08 to 108.62.
Big Board volume totaled 85.78 million shares, against 80.30 million Tuesday.
The stock market recently has struggled to sustain any sort of upturn amid investor uncertainty about the outlook for the economy and interest rates.
Wall Street hoped to get a clearer picture of the economy this week from several government reports on business activity in July. But some analysts are now saying it appears that the reports will do little to give the market a strong sense of where the economy is headed.
In June, overall business sales tumbled 2.1%, the second-largest decline since the government began keeping records on total sales in 1967, behind the 2.8% plunge in March, 1975, the Commerce Department said. Unsold inventories continued to pile up, rising 0.4%.
“It was just a few weeks ago when money managers were forecasting the best of all possible worlds: an improving economy combined with stable or declining interest rates,” Philip Roth, technical analyst at E. F. Hutton, wrote in his daily market commentary. “Now they are worried about the worst of all possible worlds: a disappointing economy and higher interest rates.”
On the interest-rate front, two New York banks lifted their broker loan rates to 9.5% from 8.75%. The rate is charged on loans to brokers using securities as collateral.
Revlon jumped 1 1/2 to 45 3/8 and topped the NYSE’s active list amid speculation the cosmetics company might be a takeover target.
Midcon spurted 2 3/8 to 45 3/8 amid speculation it will receive a takeover offer.
