FINANCIAL MARKETS : STOCKS : Dow Up 11.71; Market Mixed in Dull Trading
Blue chip stocks showed signs of recovering from their recent swoon, but the rest of the stock market managed no better than a mixed showing in a slow session Monday.
The Dow Jones index of 30 industrials, which had fallen 106.75 points during the past two weeks, recovered 11.71 to 2,656.76.
The index finished April with a net loss of 50.45.
Declining issues held a narrow edge on advances in nationwide trading of New York Stock Exchange-listed stocks, with 732 up, 749 down and 497 unchanged.
Big Board volume hit a three-week low of 122.75 million shares, against 130.65 million on Friday.
Analysts said worries over rising interest rates and inflation continued to set the mood on Wall Street.
Traders were looking ahead uneasily to the Treasury’s quarterly auction of bonds and notes, details of which are to be announced this week.
There has been much talk that long-term interest rates, already at their highest level in nearly a year, may rise further as a new supply of government securities comes to market.
The first readings on the state of the economy in April also are due this week--a monthly survey of corporate purchasing managers today, and the Labor Department’s employment report Friday.
Brokers expect these figures to support recent evidence that business activity has picked up a bit lately.
International Business Machines ranked as one of the session’s standout performers, gaining 1 5/8 to 109 in active trading.
Chairman John F. Akers said IBM was looking for a substantial improvement in its results for 1990 and had begun to see the financial benefits of a restructuring it undertook at the end of 1989.
Another contributor to the blue chips’ strength was Boeing, up 1 at 69 3/4. The company posted higher operating earnings for the first quarter, declared a 3-for-2 stock split and increased its dividend.
Elsewhere among the big-name industrials, Philip Morris rose 1/2 to 42, Bristol-Myers Squibb rose 1 to 56 1/8, American Telephone & Telegraph added 1/4 to 40 1/8 and Exxon rose 1/4 at 45 1/4.
Baltimore Bancorp, subject of a $17-a-share bid by First Maryland Bancorp, jumped 3 1/4 to 15.
In London, stocks fell slightly, depressed by economic and political worries that stemmed partly from local government elections later in the week that are seen as a test of the Thatcher government’s popularity. The Financial Times 100-share index fell 3.2 to close at 2103.4.
In Japan, stock markets, banks and most businesses were closed Monday for the extended observance of the holiday of Greenery Day Sunday. Markets will reopen today but will close again later in the week as part of the Golden Week holidays.
