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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Profit-Takers Limit Dow Gain To 5.54 Points

Associated Press

Stocks ended Friday’s session with modest gains, as a flurry of last-minute selling erased most of the day’s advance.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 5.54 at 4,556.10 after paring gains of more than 30 points.

“They’ve had a great run,” Steven Goldman, market strategist at Weeden & Co. in Greenwich, Conn., said of the blue chip stocks. “Some portfolio managers are locking in some profits to start the new quarter.”

Advancing issues led decliners by more than 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange. Big Board volume totaled 311.37 million shares as of 4 p.m., with a large portion changing hands in the last hour. That was just below the volume of 313.08 million shares that traded on Thursday.

The Dow industrials were buoyed by a good performance in cyclical stocks, which could be expected to continue performing well as long as the economy is still growing.

Other market indexes posted gains as well.

Some of the stocks that moved substantially Friday:

NYSE

IBM fell 1 to 96.

Compaq rose 3/4 to 45 1/4.

Micron Technologies fell 1/8 to 55.

Computer stocks finished mixed, giving up substantial gains in a flurry of profit-taking during the last half-hour of trading.

Starwood Lodging Trust rose 5/8 to 23 1/2.

An offering of 10.25 million shares of the company, paired with Starwood Lodging Trust, were priced at $23 each.

Boeing fell 1 7/8 to 62 5/8.

The aircraft maker said it will cut production on its 737 commercial jet to five a month in April 1996 from seven a month this year, and 757 production to three from four. But the company said it remains “upbeat” about its medium- and longterm prospects.

Motorola rose 7/8 to 67 1/8.

The company said it expects strong pager sales worldwide, despite sluggish domestic growth, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Blackrock 2001 fell 3/4 to 7 3/8.

Prudential Securities downgraded the stock to “hold” from “buy.”

NASDAQ

Microsoft rose 1 1/8 to 90 1/2.

Dell rose 1/4 to 60 5/8.

Dell agreed to offer Microsoft’s Windows 95 operating system factory-installed on its computer systems.

Ventritex rose 1 1-16 to 16 7/8.

The company applied to the Food and Drug Administration for approval for its next-generation implantable defibrillator.

California Microwave fell 4 7-16 to 25 1-16.

The company expects to report a loss of between $19 million and $25 million, or $1.15 to $1.55 a share, for the fiscal fourth quarter ending July 1, and a loss for the year of $2 million to $9 million, or 9 cents to 49 cents a share. The company said profits would be hurt by lower than expected sales and after-tax restructuring and other charges.

Work Recovery rose 1 1-16 to 7 1-32.

Analysts expect the stock to double as contracts go up, and demand is strong for its Ergos Work Simulator, a computer program that helps companies contain workers compensation cost.

Sequus Pharmaceuticals fell 1 7/8 to 10 1/4.

The stock rose sharply on Thursday on reports that the Food and Drug Administration was close to approving the company’s anticancer product, Doxil, and may market the drug in partnership with a major drug company.