Week's Stocks Squeak Out Skinny Gain: Volume Grows Lighter
NEW YORK, Feb. 2 (AP)ÛÓ The stock market headed into further profit taking this week, digested it, and edged out its seventh straight weekly advance.</br></br>The rise, however, was accomplished on the lightest volume in six weeks. Volume totaled 21,363,612 shares, compared with 23,313,478 the previous week, it was the smallest for any full, five-day trading week since the week ended Dec. 22.</br></br>The Dow-Jones industrial average emerged from the week with a net gain of 3.48 at 683.19. Chartists saw the market as chewing away against stubborn resistance in the 680-690 band of the Dow industrials, a level at which considerable stock, bought before the spring plunge, is for sale.</br></br>Record annual profits for two giants, General Motors and Du Pont, gave the market a good start on the week. A dividend boost for Standard Oil (New Jersey), the biggest oil producer, and record earnings for Texaco were among items that brightened the atmosphere later in the week.</br></br>The news from the steel industry, however, was drab. U. S. Steel reported its annual profits had sunk to a 10-year low. A couple of days later, Bethlehem, the second biggest steelmaker, reported its 1962 net income at a 15-year low.