Stocks closed with modest losses in lackluster trading Friday after recovering from computer-guided sell programs triggered by a sell-off in bonds as investors assessed a mixed April employment report.
The Dow Jones industrial average, which slipped 7.20 points Thursday, fell another 4.71 points to 3437.19. The key barometer had been down about 14 points earlier in the session.Among the broad gauges, the New York Stock Exchange composite index slid 0.54 to 244.68, while Standard & Poor's 500-stock index eased 0.95 to 442.31. The price of an average share lost 8 cents.
Declines topped advances 960-853 among the 2,461 issues crossing the NYSE tape.
Adjusted volume amounted to 223,448,000 shares, compared with 254,368,000 in the same period Thursday.
Prices ended slightly lower on the American Stock Exchange, snapping a three-day record-setting streak, but the over-the-counter market rebounded.
Treasury securities turned mixed, while the U.S. dollar inched higher.
The dollar changed hands in afternoon New York trading at 1.5865 German marks and 110.40 Japanese yen, up from 1.5735 marks and 110.05 yen late Thursday.
The bellwether 30-year Treasury bond, which fell 6/32 Thursday to yield 6.80 percent, was down 17/32 to 103 18/32. The issue's yield, which moves in the opposite direction of its price, hovered around 6.84 percent.
Traders said the long end of the bond market, which gyrated following release of Friday's inconclusive jobs report, remained particularly weak as players lightened their positions ahead of next week's Treasury quarterly refunding.
Analysts said the 7-year-note area grabbed dealers' attention, because the Treasury Department plans to stop selling such securities as part of a revamped refunding policy announced Wednesday.
As for stocks, Alfred Goldman, market strategist at A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. in St. Louis, said it seemed as though "the gridlock shifted from Washington to the New York Stock Exchange. Trading was deadly dull."
Goldman said the market had "no clear trend at all." "It can't make up its mind. It's still trying to digest the employment numbers. Everybody was waiting for somebody to step up to the plate."
However, Goldman said the stock market "did well in relation to the bond market" - which fell despite a weaker-than-expected nonfarm payroll figure - because some "believe the economy is going to pick up in the second quarter. Next week's quarterly refunding was also a factor."
But Trude Latimer, vice president and chief market strategist at Wayne Grayson Capital Corp., said she thought the employment data did not have "much of an impact, because investors still have to read the fine print."
At first glance, she said, the report showed "we're not really in such a great shape. There's fear of the economy slowing down and the possibility of inflation going up."
Nonetheless, Latimer said the market looked "firm.
"There's concentrated buying," she said. "Today's leaders are the tobaccos, because of an article in the Wall Street Journal." The Journal reported R.J. Reynolds has backed down from a looming price war with rival Philip Morris by effectively raising charges for its cheapest cigarettes.
Analysts said the market opened narrowly mixed as investors tried to digest the April employment report, which failed to provide a better reading on the economy.
Market watchers had hoped the data would clear up uncertainty about the economy, following a string of weak economic reports partly blamed on bad weather.
In overseas trading, Tokyo and London rebounded but Frankfurt retreated and Paris lost more ground.
On the NYSE trading floor, Royal Dutch Petroleum paced the Big Board actives, easing 3/8 to 897/8. Players said the activity might have been related to Royal Dutch's semiannual dividend, which trades ex-dividend next week.
Philip Morris followed, gaining 2 to 511/8. RJR Nabisco Holdings was third, edging up 1/8 to 53/4.
Among other tobacco issues, American Brands rose 3/4 to 321/4, Loews climbed 2 to 1001/8 and UST edged up 3/8 to 301/2.
Westinghouse Electric was the fourth most active, rising 5/8 to 157/8.
As for some of the blue chips, IBM edged up 3/8 to 485/8, Merck eased 3/8 to 371/8, General Motors, which traded ex-dividend, eased 1/4 to 40, and Exxon, also trading ex-dividend, lost 11/8 to 641/4.
The Amex Market Value Index slid 0.89 to 426.06, while the average price of an Amex share shed 2 cents. Declines edged advances 284-281 among the 767 issues traded. Volume totaled 16,300,000 shares, compared with 16,363,000 traded Thursday.
Royal Oak Mines led the Amex actives, edging up 5-16 to 4 11-16.
In over-the-counter trading, the National Association of Securities Dealers composite index regained 1.40 to 681.44. Advances edged declines 1,007-976 among the 2,992 issues traded.
Cisco Systems led the OTC actives, climbing 31/2 to 483/4. After the market closed Thursday, the maker of computer-network products reported fiscal third-quarter earnings of 36 cents a share, compared with 18 cents in the year-ago period.