Dow Off Slightly as Several High-Profile Stocks Fall
Blue-chip stocks closed lower today amid losses in several high- profile stocks and fresh earnings shocks.</br></br>The Dow Jones industrial average was off 0.54 points at 3396.48 and was up 25.67 points for the week. Advancing issues outnumbered those declining by about 10 to 9 on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume totaled 282.47 million shares, down from 296.30 million Wednesday.</br></br>Surgical staple maker U.S. Surgical became the latest high-growth company to be struck down by a negative earnings forecast. It slid 15 1/8 points, or 33 percent, to 31 3/8.</br></br>"It carried over," said Tom Callahan, an executive vice president at Yamaichi International, pointing to a loss of 5/8 to 23 3/4 in Abbott Laboratories and to Baxter International, which fell 1 3/8 to 27 3/8.</br></br>Stocks initially rose along with bonds on news that the March core producer price index, excluding food and energy, rose just 0.1 percent. But the advance was hampered by selling in some key stocks that are components of the Dow average.