Dow Rises 0.54,but Decliners Have 11-9Edge : Market Overview

Highlights of Monday’s market activity, compiled from Times staff and wire reports:

* Stocks ended mixed in light trading, with little news to move the market. The Dow Jones industrial average inched up 0.54 point to 3,354.90.

* The absence of news also kept bond yields flat. Grain prices plummeted, though, on word of improving weather in the Midwest.

Stocks

Bargain hunting helped blue chips late in the session, analysts said, but the broad market still finished lower: Declining issues outnumbered advancers 11 to 9 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Tom Callahan, analyst at Yamaichi International, said investors increasingly are uncertain about which sectors of the market to buy. He noted that traditional growth stocks and cyclical-industrial stocks alike have become extraordinarily volatile, and neither group can sustain a leadership role of late.

Friday’s report of low consumer-price inflation in May probably helped support stock prices somewhat on Monday, said analyst Hugh Johnson at First Albany.

But trading was lethargic, typical for a summer Monday. Big Board volume came to 164.08 million shares, down from 181.86 million Friday.

Investors hoping for solid growth in corporate profits in the current quarter may get a clue about those numbers in economic reports due today: The government will report on industrial production and housing starts for May.

Among the market highlights:

* Some technology stocks sank on increasing worries about cutthroat competition in the personal computer market. Apple dropped 2 to 52 5/8, a 1992 low. Also, AST Research lost 7/8 to 15 3/4, Advanced Logic Research fell 1/2 to 5 1/2, and Intel dropped 1 to 48 1/2.

Among larger tech firms, Digital Equipment dipped 2 1/8 to 37 1/4. But IBM gained 1 1/8 to 94 1/8.

* Utility stocks were a bright spot--which often is a harbinger of lower interest rates. SCEcorp, parent of Southern California Edison, gained 5/8 to 45 1/2, Pacific Gas & Electric added 1/2 to 33 5/8, and Consolidated Natural Gas rose 1 3/8 to 43 7/8, a 1992 high.

* Retailers were strong, though not on any particular news. May Department Stores gained 2 to 56 1/4, J. C. Penney rose 1 1/8 to 69 5/8, Wal-Mart added 3/4 to 54 7/8, and Toys R Us was up 1/2 to 34 1/2.

* Tobacco stocks were mostly lower on a report that federal prosecutors are investigating whether tobacco companies misled the public about the dangers of smoking. Philip Morris fell 1 1/4 to 73, RJR Nabisco lost 1/4 to 9 3/8, and Loews, parent of Lorillard, dropped 1 3/8 to 114 1/4.

* Monsanto plunged 5 to 54. The chemical giant late Friday said its second-quarter earnings will probably be below analysts’ estimates, in part because of launch costs for a new drug. A CountyNatwest analyst cut her 1992 full-year estimate to $4.15 a share from $4.50.

* Casino operator Caesars World leaped 1 3/8 to 28 3/8 after ITT’s Sheraton unit disclosed that it may be interested in buying a casino firm, though it didn’t say which one. Mirage Resorts rose 1 to 25 7/8. Circus Circus added 3/8 to 41 5/8 after saying it is comfortable with current-quarter earnings estimates of about 59 cents a share, up from 52 cents a year ago.

* On the NASDAQ market, Score Board plunged 7 3/4 to 21 3/4 after the marketer of baseball cards and sports memorabilia released a disappointing earnings report.

Overseas, weakness in chemical and pharmaceutical stocks pushed Frankfurt’s DAX average down 8.37 points to 1,773.90.

In London, the 100-share Financial Times average slipped 10.1 points to 2,593.6.

Tokyo, meanwhile, was hit by another round of heavy selling, pushing the Nikkei average below 17,000 for the first time since April 22. The Nikkei dropped 430.45 points, or 2.5%, to 16,953.23. It was the fourth consecutive decline.

Credit

The price of the Treasury’s 30-year bond was unchanged, and its yield held at 7.85%.

The market had little reaction to a report late in the day of slightly stronger-than-expected domestic car sales in early June.

The federal funds rate, the rate on overnight loans between banks, was 3.88%, up from 3.69% Friday.

Currency

The dollar finished mixed against major currencies and reached a five-month low against the Swiss franc as dealers grew cautious about the future of European unity.

The dollar slipped to 1.415 Swiss francs in New York from Friday’s 1.427.

Its session low of 1.409 francs was the lowest since it was at 1.402 francs Jan. 24.

The dollar also eased to 1.571 German marks from 1.576. But it edged up to 126.80 Japanese yen from 126.60.

Switzerland’s lack of membership in the European Community is apparently helping the Swiss franc as traders grow hesitant ahead of Ireland’s referendum Thursday on the Maastricht treaty.

The Irish vote is the treaty’s first test since Danish voters rejected the blueprint for European political and economic union. Among other changes, the accord calls for a single currency by 1999.

Commodities

Corn and soybean futures prices plunged on the Chicago Board of Trade as a forecast of wetter Midwestern weather washed drought fears away.

Wheat and oat futures also fell sharply as selling spilled over from the corn and soybean pits.

Corn for July delivery fell 11.75 cents to $2.475 a bushel. September, December and March deliveries, representing the new corn crop, dropped the permitted daily limit of 12 cents a bushel.

Meanwhile, crude oil for July rose a modest 6 cents to $22.36 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange in cautious trading.

Gold and silver continued to edge higher on New York’s Comex. June gold rose 20 cents to $343.10 an ounce and July silver added 1 cent to $4.14.

Market Roundup, D8