Blue Chips Hit Record High; Oil, Gold Prices Jump

Market Overview

* The Dow industrials inched up to a new high, though the broad market was mixed. Wall Street trading was slowed by the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and by the Southern California earthquake.

* The bond market was closed for the holiday. Elsewhere, crunching cold in the East and earthquake-related supply fears drove oil prices sharply higher.

Stocks

The Dow, still riding Friday’s 25-point rally, added 3.09 points to close at a new high of 3,870.29.

But trading was subdued because of the holiday. Just 234 million shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange, where losing issues narrowly outnumbered winners.

Volume also was slowed by the absence of some of Los Angeles’ major institutional investors, including Capital Group and Dimensional Fund Advisors.

Still, some analysts were cheered because the carry-over of last week’s rally included smaller stocks: The Russell 2,000 index of smaller issues joined the Dow at a new high, rising 0.62 point to 261.89.

Other indexes were mixed, however, and some disappointing fourth-quarter earnings reports weighed on the market.

Among the highlights:

* Some of 1993’s high-flying growth stocks were slammed as quarterly earnings reports failed to exceed expectations.

The losers included software firm Parametric Technology, which plunged 5 to 33 1/4 after its earnings of 25 cents a share just met expectations, and wireless telecom technology developer Qualcomm, down 3 1/8 to 51 after reporting earnings of 18 cents a share, versus a loss a year earlier.

Also, Universal Electronics, a maker of remote controls for audio-video equipment, plummeted 10 to 9 3/4 after reporting a quarterly earnings shortfall that it attributed to slow sales.

* On the plus side, industrial issues tied to the strengthening national economy continued to surge. Caterpillar jumped 2 to 92 1/2; Alcoa added 1 1/4 to 74 1/4; Deere leaped 3 1/8 to 79 5/8; Union Carbide gained 1 1/8 to 24 1/4; Phelps Dodge rose 1 to 53 1/4.

* Some building-related stocks surged, helped by expectations of reconstruction in quake-ravaged Los Angeles and fallout elsewhere. Kasler jumped 1 7/8 to 10; Fluor added 1 1/4 to 42 1/2; gypsum board maker USG gained 7/8 to 34 7/8; Republic Gypsum leaped 7/8 to 13 1/8.

* Among Southern California utilities, SCEcorp lost 1/4 to 19 1/2; Pacific Enterprises (parent of Southern California Gas) inched up 1/8 to 23 1/8, and Pacific Telesis slipped 3/8 to 55 3/8.

* First Interstate fell 1 1/8 to 68 3/4. Paine Webber downgraded the stock, citing its recent price surge.

* Diet center operator Jenny Craig dove 1 5/8 to 8 3/4 after reporting it earned 4 cents a share in the fourth quarter, down from 25 cents a year earlier. It blamed a drop in new enrollments.

In overseas markets, London’s FTSE-100 index rose 7.2 points to 3,407.8, while Frankfurt’s DAX index eased 4.44 points to 2,137.38.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei index lost 248.33 points to 18,725.37.

In Mexico City, the Bolsa gained 19.65 points to 2,506.33.

Other Markets

A weather forecast of continued below-normal temperatures in the Northeast, the main heating oil-consuming region, pushed home heating fuel prices up 1.41 cents, to 53.67 cents a gallon on the New York Merc.

The rise in heating oil helped boost crude oil prices. February crude futures on the Merc gained 32 cents to $15.10 a barrel. The price continued to recover from a five-year low of $13.75 a barrel, reached in mid-December.

The Los Angeles earthquake prompted additional buying, analysts said. Power outages caused by the quake were believed to have shut down some of the refineries south of Los Angeles, although no major damage to refineries was reported.

Elsewhere, gold for current delivery rose $2.10 an ounce to $391.60 on the New York Comex. Silver surged 9.9 cents, to $5.31 an ounce.

Market Roundup, D8