Stock Prices Slip in Dull Session, Reflecting Some Softness in Bonds
NEW YORK -- The stock market retreated in lackluster trading, with renewed concern about interest rates and continued takeover activity marking an otherwise dull session.</br></br>The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which has held steady just below the 2100 level since it closed at that plateau Sept. 14, slipped 5.51 to 2085.17.</br></br>Broader market measures were also weak. Standard & Poor's 500-stock index fell 0.88 to 268.88, and the New York Stock Exchange composite index dropped 0.42 to 151.96. Also, 845 issues declined in price on the Big Board and 550 advanced.</br></br>Traders said the market's slide reflected weakness in the bond market, which took center stage in the absence of any fresh economic data and any obvious winner in Sunday night's debate between the two major presidential candidates, Republican George Bush and Democrat Michael Dukakis.</br></br>"It's just a directionless, trendless period right now," said Rodd Anderson, a vice president of equity trading at Shearson Lehman Hutton. "Interest rates and takeovers are the story."