Dow Advances a Fraction in Erratic, Heavy Trading

Buyers and sellers slugged it out to a virtual standoff Wednesday in a busy and volatile session in the stock market.

The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials, up about 18 in the early going and down about 18 at midday, closed with a 0.14 gain at a new closing high of 2,237.63.

Volume on the New York Stock Exchange totaled 218.21 million shares, up from 187.82 million on Tuesday and the largest total in nearly two weeks.

The Dow index jumped a record 54.14 points on Tuesday.

Analysts said stocks were buffeted Wednesday by computer program activity and crosswinds of catch-up buying and selling to cash in on the market’s recent gains.

At the outset, brokers said there was a large flow of buy orders from overseas.

But that was countered later in the session by sell orders from traders apparently convinced that the market’s recent upsurge had gone to extremes.

Nevertheless, the latest advance in stock prices has impressed many observers because it came in the face of Wall Street’s spreading insider trading scandal.

Among actively traded blue chips, Sears, Roebuck rose 1 to 49 3/4 and Eastman Kodak added 3/8 to 80 1/8, but General Electric dropped 7/8 to 102 3/8 and International Business Machines was down 3/8 at 138.

Carter-Wallace tumbled 18 to 131, posting one of the day’s biggest percentage losses after E. F. Hutton analyst Lynn Pauls changed her recommendation on the pharmaceutical concern to “neutral” from an “aggressive short-term buy.” The stock has risen sharply of late on expectations of increased sales of condoms as a means of preventing the spread of acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

Advancing issues slightly outnumbered declines on the New York Stock Exchange, with 799 up, 785 down and 404 unchanged.

Large blocks of 10,000 or more shares traded on the NYSE totaled 4,179, compared to 3,662 on Tuesday.

Nationwide turnover in NYSE-listed issues, including trades in those stocks on regional exchanges and in the over-the-counter market, totaled 256.76 million shares.

In the credit markets, bond prices rose, buoyed partly by a decline in the federal funds rate that helped dampen speculation that the Federal Reserve Board was tightening credit.

The fed funds rate, the interest charged on overnight loans between banks, eased to 5.875% from 6.5% on Tuesday.

The Treasury’s bellwether 30-year issue rose point, or $2.50 per $1,000 face value, while its yield slipped to 7.60% from Tuesday’s 7.61%. Corporate and municipal bonds also were higher.

In the secondary market for Treasury bonds, prices of short-term maturities were 1/16 point higher, intermediate maturities gained 1/8 point and 20-year issues rose 1/16 point, according to Telerate Inc.