Losses Override Selected Blue Chip Vigor: Dow Industrial Off 2.34
NEW YORK, Dec. 23 (AP)ÛÓEarly leadership from a handful of blue chips failed to inspire a dull stock market today and the list went through another irregular decline. Trading was moderate.</br></br>The same pattern as yesterdayÛªs prevailed except that the loss at the end was considerably-greater, although not really sharp compared with past records.</br></br>Several high-quality issues among the chemicals, mail orders and oils responded again to investment demand as the list moved irregularly in the morning. Later in the day losses widened in the over-all list and the market was definitely lower.</br></br>The Dow Jones industrial average declined 2.34 to 868.02 after showing a gain of 1.10 at the end of the first half hour.</br></br>The powerful weight of du Pont was thrown behind the early rise when stock of the big chemical was up as much as 4 points. Du Pont erased that gain, however, and closed with a net loss of l7/åÈ.