STOCKS : Dow Gains 13.87 in Pre-Holiday Trading
Stock prices coasted to a higher close Friday, as gains in medical, retailing and financial issues added luster to an otherwise pallid day.
The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 13.87 points at 2,913.87 in a typically light pre-holiday trading session. For the week, the index rose 27.28 points.
Volume on the floor of the Big Board came to 124.50 million shares, down from Thursday’s 173.08 million. Advancing issues outnumbered declines in nationwide trading of New York Stock Exchange-listed stocks, with 963 up, 541 down and 528 unchanged.
“These pre-holiday sessions are almost always up on light volume, and that’s what happened today,” said Philip Roth, chief technical analyst at Dean Witter Reynolds.
With investors looking ahead to the Memorial Day weekend, trading was quiet. The Dow picked up in the afternoon when “bottom fishing” and computer-assisted program trading gave the market a boost.
Among the market highlights:
* Syntex Corp. rose 1/2 to 42 3/8. Analysts at Paine Webber, Smith Barney and Cowen repeated “buy” ratings after the company’s third-quarter earnings came in line with expectations.
* Glaxo Holdings PLC, a British drug company, added 2 to 42. Wertheim Schroder repeated a “buy” rating on the company, saying its current growth is extremely strong.
* In the biotechnology sector, Centocor jumped 5 3/4 to 75, Chiron gained 2 7/8 to 55 7/8, Immunex rose 2 1/2 to 42 1/2, and Amgen added 1 to 125 1/2.
* Among retailers, Home Depot added 3/4 to 65 1/2. Merrill Lynch repeated a long-term “buy.” Dillard Department Stores climbed 4 to 129 3/4.
* In the financial services arena, CNA Financial rose 2 3/4 to 81 1/4, Lincoln National added 2 1/4 to 48 3/8, and Federal Home Loan rose 2 1/4 to 81 1/8.
* Bankers Trust rose 1 to 50 1/4 on positive analysts comments.
Share prices rose in Frankfurt, Tokyo and London. Germany’s 30-share DAX average shook off early profit taking to add another 5.02 points to finish at 1,652.71. Stocks gained in Japan on a sense that the market was bottoming out. The key 225-share Nikkei average rose 244.99 points to 25,643.65. Talk of a further cut in British interest rates soon and strong corporate earnings helped boost London’s Financial Times-Stock 100-share average 16.9 points to close at 2,482.8.
Credit
Bond prices ended mixed in light, pre-holiday trading.
The Treasury’s key 30-year bond was unchanged as its yield held at 8.29%.
Bonds had risen in early trading on technical factors but lost ground after the Commerce Department issued data on April building permits, said Elizabeth Reiners, a money market economist at Dean Witter Reynolds Inc.
The government revised its report to show a 2.4% increase in permits, rather than the 3% drop reported earlier this month.
The federal funds rate, the interest on overnight loans between banks, fell to 5.375% from 5.75% late Thursday.
Currency
Strong demand for the German mark spurred by a cut in interest rates in Britain left the dollar mixed against major foreign currencies on Friday.
Overall, currency market activity was light and trading was narrow because of the Memorial Day holiday weekend, traders said.
The most significant economic news came when Britain cut its base lending rate by half a percentage point to 11.5%--the fifth cut since mid-February. It brought the rate to its lowest level since August, 1988.
The rate cut spurred demand for German marks, which rose against all major currencies and generally depressed demand for the dollar, said Ronald Holzer, vice president and chief currency dealer for Harris Trust & Savings Bank in Chicago.
In New York, the dollar fell against the mark, closing at 1.70375 marks, down from 1.71265 on Thursday. The British pound fell to $1.7345 from late Thursday’s $1.7350.
In New York, the dollar bought 138.325 Japanese yen, up from 137.785 yen on Thursday.
Commodities
Soybean futures prices fell sharply on the Chicago Board of Trade, erasing about half the gains accumulated in the three previous sessions as a late round of sell orders sliced through the holiday-thinned market.
On other commodity markets, grain futures ended lower; cotton futures rose slightly; livestock and meat futures rose; crude oil futures advanced, and precious metals were mixed.
Crude oil and gasoline futures rose, but heating oil retreated in thin, lackluster trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Light, sweet crude oil ended the day 6 to 20 cents higher, with July at $21.19 a barrel.
On the New York Commodity Exchange, gold was quoted at $356.50 an ounce, up $1.30, and silver settled at $4.028 an ounce, down from $4.039 late Thursday.
Market Roundup, D6
