Select Advances Highlight Scrambled List: Steels, Drugs Are Buoyant
NEW YORK, Dec. 2-i (AP)ÛÓAn advance by steels and sharp gains by a few selected issues featured a dull, pre-Christmas stock market today.</br></br>Volume was the lowest in nearly four months as many Wall Streeters got an early start on the three-day holiday weekend. Most commodity markets closed early. Securities exchanges will be closed until Monday.</br></br>Turnover slipped to 3.58 million shares from 4.48 million yesterday and was the smallest since Aug. 13 when 3.35 million shares changed hands.</br></br>It looked like a do-nothing market until late in the morning when U.S. Steel followed the example set by Inland Steel earlier this week and announced price boosts for galvanized sheets. This action rallied the entire steel group. Later Republic Steel followed the increases.</br></br>Another highlight was a 2%-point jump by Merck following a report it had received Federal approval to market an anticancer drugÛÓActinomycin ÛÏDÛÛÓto hospitals. Trading in the stock had to be halted temporarily because of the swarm of buyers. The best gain was trimmed after Merck said it was a ÛÏpublic serviceÛ product unlikely to be of economic significance to the company.