Stock Prices Retreat for 2nd Session : Year-End Rally Sputters as Dow Slips 1.43 Points

The stock market declined slightly in slackened trading Wednesday as Wall Street’s year-end rally sputtered for a second straight session.

The Dow Jones index of 30 industrials, down 6.61 on Tuesday, slipped another 1.43 points to 2,164.64.

Declining issues outnumbered advances by about 6 to 5 in nationwide trading of New York Stock Exchange-listed stocks, with 659 up, 798 down and 556 unchanged.

Volume on the floor of the Big Board came to 147.25 million shares, down from 161.09 million in the previous session. Nationwide, consolidated volume in NYSE-listed issues, including trades in those stocks on regional exchanges and in the over-the-counter market, totaled 175.08 million shares.

Smaller Stocks Lagged

Analysts said traders began to sell Tuesday when the Dow Jones industrials made a run past their 1988 closing high of 2,183.50, reached on Oct. 21, but failed to hold the gain.

That was widely regarded as a disappointing performance, especially since the dollar and bonds both turned in strong showings.

Since late November, the market has enjoyed a year-end rally led by blue chips and stocks involved or rumored to be involved in takeover plays.

But many smaller “secondary” stocks have lagged behind, apparently depressed by a lack of enthusiasm among individual investors and selling for year-end tax purposes.

Activity in the market is expected to dwindle further Thursday and Friday as more and more participants get an early start on the long Christmas weekend.

Fairchild Industries jumped 2 3/8 to 15 3/4. An investment partnership offered to acquire the company for $15.50 a share.

Damon Corp. gained 3 to 25 3/4. The company, which had previously said it was talking merger with Nomad Partners LP, disclosed that it had been approached by a third party it did not name.

Composite Index Slips

Honeywell fell 2 1/2 to 57 1/2. Late Tuesday the company said a series of writedowns might leave it with a loss of more than $400 million for the year.

Bolt Beranek & Newman, which said it expects to post a loss for the fiscal quarter that ends Dec. 31, dropped 2 7/8 to 10 1/2.

Among actively traded blue chips, International Business Machines slipped 1/4 to 123; General Electric fell 3/8 to 45 3/8; Coca-Cola was down 1/8 to 44 3/8, and American Express fell 1/4 to 26 3/4. American Telephone & Telegraph was unchanged at 29 1/2.

Large blocks of 10,000 or more shares traded on the NYSE totaled 3,048, compared to 3,429.

The Wilshire index of 5,000 equities closed at 2,722.995, up 0.277 or 0.01% from the preceding trading day.

The NYSE’s composite index of all its listed common stocks dipped 0.01 to 155.73.

Standard & Poor’s industrial index rose 0.03 to 320.54, and S&P;’s 500-stock composite index was down 0.09 at 277.38.

The NASDAQ composite index for the over-the-counter market fell 0.45 to 375.60. At the American Stock Exchange, the market value index closed at 299.71, up 0.04.

A late round of futures-related buying helped stocks rise on the Tokyo Stock Exchange during the final minutes to close mixed. The Nikkei index of 225 selected issues, up 97.86 points Tuesday, added 130.25 points to close at 29,698.19

Stocks finished lower on the London stock exchange. The Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100-share index fell 4.8 points, or 0.3%, to 1,772.6, near the session low of 1,771.8. The index’s best level of the day was 1,776.9.