Dow Turns Down 3.72 as Traders Await News

The stock market sustained some scattered losses today after making a short-lived run at record highs.

The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials, up about 10 points at its afternoon peak, closed with a 3.72 loss at 2,929.70.

Declining issues slightly outnumbered advances on the New York Stock Exchange, with 711 up, 774 down and 507 unchanged.

Big Board volume totaled 158.91 million shares, against 157.10 million in the previous session.

The NYSE’s composite index fell .66 to 199.00.

The Commerce Department reported this morning that retail sales fell 0.7% in May, registering a sharper decline than most analysts had expected.

That evidence of continued softness in business activity helped push interest rates lower in the credit markets.

Prices of long-term government bonds rose about $7.50 for each $1,000 in face value, lowering their yields to the 8.38%-8.41% range.

But stock traders didn’t show such clear-cut enthusiasm over the news. Analysts said investors were a little unsettled by signs that consumer spending was slipping at a time when economic growth appears to be sluggish at best.

In addition, traders appeared reluctant to chase after stocks in advance of government reports Thursday and Friday on consumer and producer prices.

In the secondary market for Treasury bonds, prices of short-term governments rose between 1/8 point and 9/32 point, intermediate maturities rose between 5/16 point and 15/32 point and long-term issues were up 5/8 point to 11/16 point, according to the Telerate financial information service.

Yields on three-month Treasury bills fell to 7.94% as the discount fell 4 basis points to 7.69%.