Listless Dow Gains 2.85 on Index Futures Sales

Stock prices rose slightly today in listless trading.

The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials rose 2.85 to 2,707.26.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones by about 4 to 3 on the New York Stock Exchange, with 818 up, 615 down and 534 unchanged.

Big Board volume totaled 142.14 million shares, against 126.02 million in the previous session.

The NYSE’s composite index rose 0.58 to 193.88.

At the American Stock Exchange, the market value index rose 2.11 to 384.54.

Prices were pushed up in the morning by buying interest in stock index futures contracts in Chicago, which was transmitted to Wall Street through arbitrage, traders said.

The index-related buying was short-lived, however, and stocks traded only slightly higher for most of the session.

The outlook for interest rates continued to figure importantly in investors’ thinking. The market appeared to be marking time before the release of several government reports on the economy at the end of this week that could signal the direction of interest rates and inflation.

Interest rates were slightly higher today as bond prices fell.

Bond prices turned narrowly mixed in quiet early trading today.

The Treasury’s closely watched 30-year bond was off nearly 1/4 point, or $2.50 per $1,000 face amount, by midday. Its yield, which rises when prices fall, went up to 8.08% from 8.07% late Monday.

Shorter-term maturities were unchanged to slightly higher in price.

Market analysts said most traders were keeping a low profile today in advance of economic data due later this week, including government reports on retail sales, the producer price index and industrial production for August.

The government also is expected to release data on the merchandise trade deficit for July.

The credit markets largely ignored today’s second-quarter current account trade report, which is the broadest measure of the U.S. trade picture and includes trade in services and merchandise. That report said the trade deficit edged up to $30.99 billion during the April-June period.

In the secondary market for Treasury securities, prices of short-term and intermediate governments were unchanged to 1/32 point higher and long-term issues fell between 3/16 point and 1/4 point, according to the Telerate Inc. financial information service.

The movement of a point is equivalent to a change of $10 in the price of a bond with a $1,000 face value.

The Shearson Lehman Hutton daily Treasury bond index, which measures price movements on outstanding Treasury issues with maturities of a year or longer, stood at 1,181.16, off 0.41.

Moody’s investment grade corporate bond index, which measures total return on a portfolio of 80 corporate bonds with maturities of five years or longer, rose 0.24 to 330.84.