Market Closes Mixed; Dow Index Drops 7.94
The New York Stock Exchange said that because of a five-minute computer failure Thursday, transactions that occurred in that period could not be transmitted for inclusion in market tables. This means that trading volume, the day’s highs and lows for individual stocks, tables listing most active stocks and stocks with the biggest percentage gains and losses could be wrongly reported.
Stock prices finished mixed Thursday in what traders described as one of the lightest sessions in more than three weeks.
“It’s been a dull day, just no interest,” said Robert O’Toole, manager of over-the-counter trading at the New York investment firm of Shearson Lehman Bros. “Everybody’s sitting on their hands. None of the big institutional investors are committing big bucks on the buying side.”
The Dow Jones average of 30 industrial stocks, Wall Street’s best-known indicator, fell 7.94 points to 1,838.13.
But other, broader measures of the market’s behavior were stronger.
Volume on the New York Stock Exchange came to only 109.06 million shares, or 18.29 million less than Wednesday’s volume. It was the lightest since May 19, when 85.84 million shares changed owners.
Among the most notable losing issues, blue-chip leader IBM slipped 1 1/8 to 148, General Motors 1 1/8 to 76 3/4, Teledyne 2 1/8 to 332 3/4 and Boeing 1 to 59 1/2.
K mart rose 1 to 52 in heavy trading because of rumors that the company would go into a television marketing joint venture with GTE Corp. The company said it had no such plans.
Bond prices moved higher.
The Treasury’s 30-year bond finished the day up about 11/16 point, or nearly $7 for each $1,000 in face amount. Its yield declined to 7.66% from 7.72% late Wednesday.
In the secondary market for Treasury bonds, prices of short-term governments rose 5/32 point, medium-term governments were up by 1/2 point to 5/8 point and the 20-year bond rose 5/8 point.
The Merrill Lynch daily Treasury index, which measures price movements on all outstanding Treasury issues with maturities of a year or longer, stood at 114.42, up 0.34 from Wednesday’s late level.
In corporate trading, industrials and utilities rose point in moderate to active trading. Among tax-exempt municipal bonds, general obligations and revenue bonds were unchanged in light dealings.
Yields on three-month Treasury bills declined seven basis points to 6.25%. Six-month bills fell eight basis points to 6.36%. One-year bills were down 10 basis points to 6.40%.
