Dow Declines 9 Points on Profit-Taking
NEW YORK. July 13ÛÓTraders in blue-chip" stocks today yawned at the sharpest monthly decline in wholesale prices in two years, and profit-taking eroded prices after four-straight sessions of gains.</br></br>Hie Dow Jones industrial average was off 8.94 points, to 3515.44. Advancing issues narrowly outnumbered declines on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume totaled 236.7 million shares, up from 2023 million Monday.</br></br>Analysts said investors viewed the 0.3 percent decline in the producer price index for June as in line with economistsÛª expectations, and were waiting for Wednesday's report on June consumer prices and the slew of quarterly earnings reports due out over the next couple of weeks.</br></br>The producer price index news spurred moderate buying of the Treasury's benchmark 30-year bond, driving its yield to another 16-year low. But prices of shorter term securities suffered as traders cashed in on the market's recent advance.</br></br>By dayÛªs end, the price of the 30-year bond rose % point, or $1.25 cents per $1,000 in face value. Its yield, which moves in the opposite direction, fell to 6.61 percent from 6.62 percent late Monday.