Dow Falls 9.60, Ends Week 17.60 Ahead

Stock prices fell Friday but still displayed signs of resilience after the Labor Department issued an employment report that deepened investor concerns about inflation.

“The market absorbed the negative news fairly well--I didn’t see a selling rout by any means,” said Ralph Acampora, a market analyst with Kidder, Peabody & Co.

The Dow Jones index of 30 industrials fell 9.60 to 2,092.28 after having been down about 17 in early trading. The index closed out the week with a 17.60-point gain.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers 4-to-3 in nationwide trading of New York Stock Exchange-listed stocks, with 822 issues down, 616 up and 504 unchanged.

Big Board volume totaled a sluggish 124.61 million shares, down from 129.38 million Thursday. Nationwide, consolidated volume in NYSE-listed issues, including trading at regional exchanges and on the over-the-counter market, totaled 150.79 million shares.

Blow to Traders

The Labor Department’s monthly report on employment had been eagerly awaited by financial markets for indications on the direction of the economy.

But the news that 463,000 new jobs were created last month came as a blow to traders because it meant the economy remained strong. The markets believed that the higher-than-expected gain in jobs would prompt the Federal Reserve to raise its discount rate to keep a lid on inflation.

Bond prices slumped on the news, with the Treasury’s 30-year issue skidding about $15 per $1,000 in face amount by late afternoon. Meanwhile, the bond’s yield surged to about 9.16% from late Thursday’s 9.02% and short-term interest rates also moved higher.

Wall Street took its cue from the credit markets, opening lower and continuing to slide. But as the afternoon wore on, blue chip issues recovered some lost ground.

“Most market participants were surprised that the market was not hit harder,” said Alfred Goldman, an analyst with A. G. Edwards & Sons Inc. in St. Louis.

Acampora, the Kidder Peabody analyst, said, “A lot of the negative news was already discounted in the market.”

If the Dow Jones index falls through the 2,030 mark and other market indicators drop below important psychological levels, “Christmas and the first of the new year will bring little cheer, and there will be trouble well into the first quarter” for Wall Street, Goldman said.

Technology Issues Gain

However, if stocks “hold at these levels, it will signal that there are enough buyers around who feel that stocks are attractive,” he said.

The most actively traded issue on the NYSE was RJR Nabisco, which fell 1 to 90 3/4.

Technology issues were among the gainers. IBM rose 1 to 119 1/4; Digital Equipment was up 1 3/8 to 95 1/4, and Compaq Computer picked up 1 1/8 to close at 57 1/8.

Among the decliners were AT&T;, down 5/8 to 28 3/4; Dow Chemical, which dropped 1 1/4 to 84 1/8, and General Motors, off 7/8 to 83 5/8.

Large blocks of 10,000 or more shares traded on the NYSE totaled 2,384, compared to 2,663 Thursday.

The Wilshire index of 5,000 equities closed at 2,680.421--down 3.696, or 0.14%, from the preceding trading day.

The NYSE composite index of all its listed common stocks fell 0.35 to 153.02.

Standard & Poor’s industrial index slipped 0.62 to 313.16; its 500-stock composite index fell 0.68 to 271.81.

The NASDAQ composite index rose 0.04 to 373.91; the American Stock Exchange index rose 0.02 to 295.27.

In Tokyo, stocks drifted. The Nikkei 225-share index lost 9.21 points, or 0.03%, to close at 29,532.25, after a day of featureless trading, brokers said.

Stocks fell in London, reflecting what analysts called deepened worries about the outlook for British economic growth and corporate profits. The Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100-share index fell 13.7 points, or 0.8%, to 1,765.0.