Dow Struggles to Slim 0.82 Gain in an Erratic Session

NEW YORK — The stock market struggled to a small gain in an erratic session today.

The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials, which climbed 41.60 on Tuesday, edged up 0.82 to 2,645.90.

Advancing issues outnumbered declines by about 5 to 4 on the New York Stock Exchange, with 841 up, 632 down and 475 unchanged.

Big Board volume totaled 154.24 million shares, against 176.10 million in the previous session.

The NYSE’s composite index rose .60 to 188.84.

Stock prices in general got a lift Tuesday from news of a takeover bid by Georgia-Pacific for Great Northern Nekoosa.

Analysts said the news was taken as reassurance that merger and acquisition activity wasn’t going to disappear as a result of recent problems involving several debt-financed buyout plans.

At the same time, analysts said, worries persisted about the numerous disappointments that showed up in corporate earnings for the third quarter of the year.

Those reports prompted talk of a possible significant slowdown in the economy, and downward revisions of profit projections for the rest of this year and early 1990.

The Treasury’s bellwether 30-year bond was up nearly 1/8 point, or $1.25 per $1,000 face amount, by midday. Its yield, which falls when the price rises, slipped to 8.89% from 8.90% late Tuesday.

Prices on bonds and notes with shorter maturities were unchanged to up slightly.

Analysts said the market started out lower but got some support from today’s report by the National Assn. of Purchasing Management that the manufacturing sector remained weak last month, registering the sixth straight monthly decline.

That report, along with others recently pointing to sluggish growth in the economy, further fueled hope among bondholders that the Federal Reserve might soon consider lowering interest rates to prevent the nation from falling into a recession, analysts said.

By midday in the secondary market for Treasury securities, prices of short-term government issues rose 1/32 point, intermediate maturities were mostly unchanged and long-term issues rose as much as 1/8 point, according to the Telerate Inc. financial information service.

The Shearson Lehman Hutton daily Treasury bond index, which measures price movements on outstanding Treasury issues with maturities of a year or longer, rose 0.40 to 1,192.17.

The federal funds rate, the interest on overnight loans between banks, was quoted at midday at 9%, up from 8 7/8% late Tuesday.