All the reasons for the stock market...

All the reasons for the stock market to continue its upward journey this year are disappearing rapidly, said Irving Katz, director of research at Thomas Green/San Diego Securities.

Despite an auspicious beginning when the Dow Jones Industrial Average spurted up 57 points on the year’s first trading day, the market has since trended down. Last Friday, a free fall carried the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 71 points.

Since then, the Dow has come down 130 points, or almost 5%, with some San Diego stocks showing even greater losses. Reasons are many. The government reported a monthly increase in producer prices of 0.7% last Friday, much higher than expected, while retail sales advanced a disappointing 0.2%, which was much lower than expected.

Also contributing to the decline are program trading, the falling Japanese stock prices and weakness in the Japanese bond market and the yen.

On the local scene, there have been only two substantial gainers. One, Magma Power, which hit a new high of 29 1/2 during the past week, has gained 3 1/4 points during the past two weeks, a 13% gain. First National Corp. has gained 2 points this year and is likewise up 13%.

The downside showed severe casualties as some institutional favorites were sold off. The largest percentage drop was recorded by Advanced Marketing Services, down 4 1/2 points to 9 1/2 in the past two weeks. Investors had anticipated adverse news; the stock was a laggard last year and dropped 15.4% for the year while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 28%.

Price Co. was the largest point loser, down 5 1/2 points or 12% since year’s end to 40 3/4. Analysts were disappointed with its 14% increase in per-share first-quarter earnings and a 16% increase in revenues and filed a plethora of revised earnings estimates.

Additional downward pressure was exerted on DH Technologies, down 2 points or 14% since year’s end, after a 160% gain in 1989. Likewise, Medical Imaging Centers was down 1 1/2 points or 13%, but it gained 114% last year. These stocks were probably subjected to profit taking after last year’s sharp run-ups.

Mycogen will hold its annual meeting at 9 a.m. Thursday at company headquarters.