Stocks Drop in Moderate Trading As New Gain by Bonds Is Ignored
Stock prices fell in moderately active trading yesterday as investors ignored a continued advance in the bond market.</br></br>The Dow Jones Industrial Average bounced around in a relatively narrow range throughout the day, closing down 18.24 at 1945.29.</br></br>With stocks falling in Tokyo and London, traders in the U.S. had braced themselves for a big downswing as the opening bell was sounded on the New York Stock Exchange. Some were looking for a drop of as much as 100 points in the industrial average. The average declined, but only about 35 points. After selling stocks in their own markets, foreign investors unloaded some U.S. shares here early in the session, traders said.</br></br>Moves to lower interest rates by the Bank of England and several major British banks rekindled expectations of a coordinated global move by the U.S. and its major trading partners to reduce rates, analysts said. But Wall Street professionals are still looking for some kind of progress from Washington on a package to trim the federal budget deficit.</br></br>The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index dropped 1.86 to 248.96, and the New York Stock Exchange composite index lost 1.00 to 139.11. The moderate losses for the widely followed market indexes were mirrored in the number of issues that rose and fell yesterday -- 933 declined and 713 advanced.