Stock prices slip on profit-taking

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Dec 5, 1996

NEW YORK (AP) -- Another round of profit-taking sent stocks on a second straight drop Wednesday, but leading market averages cut their losses over the last hour as the slide proved too enticing for bargain hunters.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 19.75 to 6,422.94 after rebounding from a 75-point deficit over the last hour. On Tuesday, the Dow dropped 79 points as money managers secured big gains from last month's nearly 500-point advance by the blue-chip barometer.

Broader stock measures also recovered as the session wound down, but the Nasdaq market snapped its streak of seven-consecutive record closes as many high-flying technology shares succumbed to the selling pressure. Once again, the Dow's biggest losers included its best performers during November. United Technologies, for example, fell 2 1/4 to 134 1/4. But other leading blue chips such as IBM bounced back quickly. After an early extension of late Tuesday's pullback, Wednesday's session quickly turned sluggish as bonds traded almost unchanged. There was little reaction to the published results of a Federal Reserve survey that reinforced the widespread notion that the economy is growing moderately with little sign of rising prices. Most analysts say the pace of economic growth has slowed enough to keep inflationary pressures in check without an increase in interest rates by the Fed. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by more than a 4-to-3 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume totaled 493.70 million shares as of 4 p.m., down from 515.66 million on Tuesday. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index fell 3.18 to 745.10, and the NYSE's composite index fell 1.62 to 393.23. The Nasdaq composite index fell 3.35 to 1,297.02, and the American Stock Exchange's market value index fell 3.19 to 588.99.