Dow Up 13.74; Bargains Halt 111.27-Point Skid

The stock market halted a weeklong decline with a modest advance today.

The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials, down 111.27 points over the last five sessions, rose 13.74 to 2,668.24.

Advancing issues outnumbered declines by about 6 to 5 on the New York Stock Exchange, with 784 up, 653 down and 524 unchanged.

Big Board volume totaled 133.48 million shares, against 137.36 million in the previous session.

The NYSE’s composite index gained .84 to 182.35.

Analysts said prices appeared to have fallen far enough to attract buyers looking for bargains.

But they questioned how far a rally could go without signs of a significant easing in upward pressure on interest rates.

Yields on government bonds, which tend to influence the overall level of long-term interest rates, have climbed lately to near 9%, the highest they have been in nearly a year.

That development has dampened hopes that corporate profits might improve in the months ahead.

Bond prices were mixed in dull trading early today, with short-term bonds unchanged to slightly lower and longer-term issues edging higher.

The Treasury’s closely watched 30-year bond was up about 1/8 point, or $1.25 for every $1,000 in face value, at around midday. Its yield, which declines when the price rises, slipped to 8.94% from 8.95% late Tuesday.

Analysts said most bond investors were marking time until an auction of two-year Treasury bonds scheduled for later today.

“The bond market’s not doing anything,” said Elizabeth Reiners, a vice president of Dean Witter Reynolds Inc.

Bond prices have plunged in recent days in response to signs of increasing inflation, a stronger economy and worries about upcoming bond issues, including the Treasury’s quarterly refunding auction set for next month.

Higher inflation and an economic upturn could prompt the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates high. Higher rates erode the value of bonds and other fixed-return investments.

Bonds recovered Tuesday morning but later were driven lower by unconfirmed rumors that the Fed planned to tighten interest rates in the near future.

The market is looking toward Friday’s report on the U.S. gross national product for 1990 for another assessment of the economy.

In the secondary market for Treasury bonds, prices of short-term government issues were unchanged to 1/16 point lower, intermediate maturities were 1/16 point lower to 1/32 point higher and long-term issues rose 1/16 point to 5/32 point, according to the Telerate 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, was up 0.31 at 1,132.60.