Dow Slips 2.13; Stock Market Turns Mixed : Takeover Talk, News Spur Several Issues

The stock market turned mixed in a drifting session Wednesday after its strong advance in the previous session.

But while the market as a whole showed little life, several individual stocks bounded ahead on takeover news and speculation.

The Dow Jones index of 30 industrials, up 54.89 points on Tuesday, slipped back 2.13 to 2,295.81.

Volume on the New York Stock Exchange stepped up to 171.42 million shares from 152.46 million the day before.

The market surged ahead Tuesday as lessening inflationary worries and a strengthening dollar touched off a sharp drop in interest rates.

Advancing issues slightly outnumbered declines on the NYSE, with 768 up, 763 down and 443 unchanged.

The Treasury’s key 30-year bond, which had advanced nearly 4 points since the middle of last week, was off 7/8 point in late trading, or about $8.75 for every $1,000 in face amount. The yield on the bond, which moves inversely to its price, rose to 8.73% from 8.66%.

In the secondary market for Treasury bonds, prices of short-term governments fell between 1/8 point and point, intermediate maturities ranged from about 5/16 point to 9/16 point lower and 20-year issues were down about 1 1/8 points, according to figures provided by the financial information service Telerate Inc.

In corporate trading, industrials were off 1/8 point and utilities fell point in light trading, according to the investment firm Salomon Bros.

Among tax-exempt municipal bonds, general obligations fell 3/8 point and revenue bonds were down 5/8 point, Salomon Bros. said. Trading was light.

The federal funds rate, the interest on overnight loans between banks, traded at 6.875%, down from 7.125% on Tuesday.