Stocks Mixed to End Slow Month; Dow Off 1

The stock market closed out a month of sluggish activity with a mixed showing Friday, faced with some uneven signals on the state of the economy.

The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials dropped 1.12 to 1,334.01. That left the average with a 15.69-point gain for the week but a net loss of 13.44 for August.

Volume on the New York Stock Exchange came to 81.62 million shares, against 85.66 million Thursday.

Before the opening, the government reported that the index of leading economic indicators rose 0.4% in July. At the same time, it revised the figure for June, originally reported as a 1% increase, to a rise of 0.4%.

The Commerce Department also said the nation’s trade deficit narrowed last month. But new factory orders fell 1.6% for their biggest decrease in 10 months.

The new trade figures pointed to improved economic growth, which resulted in bond prices falling sharply in quiet pre-holiday trading. The declines wiped out modest gains from earlier in the week. Renewed economic activity would reduce prospects for further declines in interest rates.

Stock analysts said the effect of all this news on the market apparently was minimal, with many investors on vacation or getting an early start on the long Labor Day weekend. After the holiday, when market participants devote their full attention to the outlook for the economy and corporate profits, brokers said there is still likely to be plenty of debate over whether business conditions are picking up after a sluggish first half of 1985.

Among actively traded blue chips, International Business Machines dropped 7/8 to 126 5/8, American Express 1/2 to 41 and American Telephone & Telegraph 1/8 to 21.

Union Carbide rose 1/2 to 57. The stock has been strong since the company announced a restructuring plan earlier in the week.

Manor Care climbed 1/2 to 25 1/2. The operator of nursing centers and hospitals declared a 3-for-2 stock split.

Playboy Enterprises dropped 1/2 to 8 3/4. The company said its independent auditors will qualify their report on its financial statements for the fiscal year ended June 30 because of uncertainties involving certain payments due it from the sale of its interest in a hotel-casino in Atlantic City, N.J.

In the daily tally on the Big Board, advancing issues slightly outnumbered declines. But the exchange’s composite index of more than 1,500 common stocks slipped 0.08 to 109.39.

Nationwide turnover in NYSE-listed issues, including trades in those stocks on regional exchanges and in the over-the-counter market, totaled 95.61 million shares.

Large blocks of 10,000 or more shares traded on the NYSE totaled 1,462, compared to 1,758 on Thursday.

Standard & Poor’s index of 400 industrials fell 0.32 to 209.69, and S&P;’s 500-stock composite index was down 0.30 at 188.63.

The Wilshire index of 5,000 equities closed at 1,953.101, down 1.369.

The NASDAQ composite index for the over-the-counter market gained 0.40 to 297.71.

At the American Stock Exchange, the market-value index closed at 235.25, up 1.00

In the credit markets, yields on 30-year Treasury bonds rose to 10.48% from the 10.38% level of the previous three days. That was up slightly from the 10.45% at the end of the previous week.

In the secondary market for Treasury bonds, prices of short-term governments fell point to 3/8 point, intermediate maturities fell 1/2 point to 7/8 point and long-term issues were off 1 point, according to the investment firm of Salomon Bros. The movement of a point is equivalent to a change of $10 in the price of a bond with a $1,000 face value.

The Merrill Lynch daily Treasury index, which measures price movements on all outstanding Treasury issues with maturities of a year or longer, fell 0.61 to 106.13. The Shearson Lehman daily Treasury bond index, which makes a similar measurement, fell 11.13 to 1,113.20.