Stocks Slip as Trading Slows; Dow Loses 7.68

The stock market turned downward Monday, backing away from last week’s record highs in the lightest trading in six weeks.

Blue-chip and technology issues were among the primary targets of sellers looking to cash in on the market’s recent gains. Depressed metals issues, by contrast, staged a rally.

The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials fell 7.68 to 1,456.65. That drop, though by no means drastic, was the largest for the average since it lost 9.07 points on Sept. 25.

Volume on the New York Stock Exchange slowed to 91.71 million shares, down from 133.75 million Friday and the lightest total since 78.54 million were traded on Oct. 14, when Columbus Day was being observed.

Analysts said stocks appeared to be encountering another of the periodic spells of profit taking that have punctuated the market’s dramatic rise over the past two months. To date, all of those outbursts of selling have proved brief. At some point, brokers say, a more extensive retreat is possible as traders move to turn paper profits into cash.

Metals Issues Gain

However, analysts saw nothing in the news at present to provoke any big change in the market’s mood. Hopes were still running high on Wall Street for further declines in interest rates and a healthy economy in 1986.

Losers in the blue-chip and technology sectors included General Electric, down 7/8 at 65; International Business Machines, down 5/8 at 138 7/8; Digital Equipment, down 2 at 116 1/8, and Texas Instruments, off 1 3/4 at 102 3/8.

Metals issues came to life as the price of gold, which has been in a narrow trading range for weeks, gained $5.40 an ounce to $332.30 on the Commodity Exchange in New York. Phelps Dodge rose 1 to 21 3/4, Hecla Mining 7/8 to 16 1/2, Sunshine Mining 3/8 to 6 5/8, ASA Ltd. 3/4 to 38 1/2 and Homestake Mining 5/8 to 24 1/2.