Stocks Battered Lower in Brisk Selling: Dow Average Slumps 9.71
NEW YORK, Sept. 25 (AP)ÛÓStock Market prices were battered down today to their worst loss since April 24. Trading was fairly active.</br></br>Sharp losses by aluminum stocks gave initial downside momentum to a market which was only irregularly lower at the start. The labor negotiations with Ford, whose stock touched one high after another last week, sent that stock down S4.25.</br></br>President KcnendyÛªs speech to the United Nations, and its stress on disarmament, brought some uneasiness to the defense stocks but probably more important as a market factor was the decline in the Dow Jones industrial average below the 700 level for the first time since July 26. This was a bad omen to technicians and triggered further selling.</br></br>The market slipped very gradually until late afternoon when a wave of selling brought big losses in many important sections. Final trading was accompanied by a late ticker tape, four minutes behind floor transactions.</br></br>The AP 60-stock average fell 2.90 to 248.30 with industrials down 4.20, rails down 1.80 and utilities down 1.30.