Late Selling Halts Rally Attempt; Dow Up 0.12

The stock market finished about even Tuesday after a bout of selling late in the day thwarted a rally attempt.

The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials rose 0.12 to 1,456.77.

The market was cooled, especially in the morning, by traders’ concerns about the ability of Texaco to fight a $10.53-billion verdict against it by a Texas jury in the case of Texaco’s takeover of Getty Oil.

Gainers outnumbered losers 794 to 760 among the New York Stock Exchange-listed issues.

Big Board volume was 123.05 million shares, compared to 91.7 million shares on Monday.

The Dow industrials fell more than 2 points in the morning, then went 4 points ahead of Monday’s close in the afternoon before receding late in the day. Analysts said the market was continuing to digest its big gains of the past nine weeks.

Needs Consolidation

“The market’s just tired. There’s a need of some consolidation and sidewards movement, but, by the end of the year, we could see another rally,” said Hildegard Zagorski, a market strategist for Prudential-Bache Securities.

“I think this is really a non-performance, sort of an evening-up before the Thanksgiving holidays. I think the market’s still going to be going higher,” said Raymond DeVoe, an analyst with Legg Mason Wood Walker.

The Commerce Department failed to cheer the market, announcing that orders to U.S. factories for durable goods fell 2.1% in October, the third decline in the last four months. The department said orders would have held steady except for another big drop in demand for military equipment.

Trading in Texaco was halted on the New York Stock Exchange for 59 minutes in the morning because of an imbalance in buy and sell orders after falling 1 3/4 to 32 1/2 on heavy volume.

The company’s stock hit a 52-week low during the day and closed at 32 1/8, down 2 1/8. It was the most active issue on the Big Board, with 8.3 million shares changing hands.

Zagorski said the sharp drop in Texaco’s price appeared to depress the whole market in the morning, especially since Texaco is one component of the Dow Jones industrial average.

Among other active issues, American Express was up to 48 1/2, Baxter Travenol Laboratories was up to 14 and Duquesne Light Co. was unchanged at 17.

Digital Equipment led the high-technology stocks, closing up 2 3/8 to 118 1/2. Data General climbed 5/8 to 42 3/4 and Hewlett-Packard was up 1/8 at 34 3/8. International Business Machines was unchanged at 139.

In the credit markets, prices of U.S. government securities finished mixed Tuesday as the Treasury sold $9 billion of new 52-week bills.

Prices of municipal bonds declined amid a continuing heavy supply of new issues while corporate bond prices were unchanged to up slightly. Interest rates were little changed over the session.

In the sixth of seven auctions totaling $61 billion in securities, the Treasury sold $9 billion of new one-year bills to raise cash at an average yield of 7.33%, the lowest interest rate on these bills since July. The rate was down from 7.51% at the last auction on Oct. 24 and was the lowest for 52-week bills since an average return of 7.09% on July 7.

Yields on the Treasury’s new benchmark 30-year bond, maturing in 2015, stood at 9.96% by the end of the session, down from 9.97% late Monday.

In corporate trading, industrials were unchanged in light trading, and utilities rose 1/8 point in quiet trading.