Dow Dips In Brisk, Computer-Driven Trading

Stocks were mixed in heavy, computer-driven trading Friday. The Dow Jones industrial average rallied hard in the final hour to close barely lower on the day and broad market indexes were mixed.

The Dow industrials closed down 1.09 point at 5,584.97, after dropping nearly 30 points earlier in the day. The Dow hovered at a loss of around 10 points for most of the afternoon until computerized buy programs lifted it near the close, traders said.

For the week, the Dow added 114.52, more than recovering from the steep sell-off at the end of the previous week. The gain almost doubled the 66.11-point-decline of a week earlier, when the market’s best-known indicator plummeted 171.24 points on March 8.

Trading was made extra volatile by Friday’s quarterly “triple witching” expiration of options and futures contracts.

Volume reached 529.96 million shares as of 4 p.m. at the New York Stock Exchange, the fourth-heaviest trading day ever and well above Thursday’s pace.

Blue-chip stocks dropped with the bond market, where the 30-year benchmark Treasury bond lost about 1/2 point, yielding 6.73 percent.

“Today’s slight downtick in the market is just coinciding with what’s going on in the bond market,” said Robert Froelich, chief investment strategist at Van Kampen American Capital in Oakbrook, Ill.

Some of the stocks that moved substantially Friday:

NYSE

Kmart rose 3/4 to 10-1/4.

A New York Times story Friday suggests Warren Flick, Kmart’s president since December, has helped the stock higher with a new merchandising plan and “take-charge demeanor.” USA Today, in its Street Talk column Friday, said shares of the giant retailer “might be … a bargain.”

Micron Technology Inc. rose 3-1/2 to 32-5/8.

The Boise-based semiconductor maker said its second-quarter net earnings edged up to 87 cents a share from 86 cents a year ago. The current figure includes a 9-cents-per-share special charge taken to discontinue sales of the ZEOS brand personalcomputer systems. Micron attributed lower sales and earnings for the second quarter to “significantly lower” prices for the 4 Meg DRAM.

NASDAQ

Applied Materials Inc. rose 2-5/8 to 34-5/8.

The Santa Clara, Calif., company said it will buy back from investors up to five million common shares on the open market during the next three years.

3Com rose 2-5/8 to 44-3/8.

Intel rose 2-3/4 to 58-7/8.

3Com stock was recovering from Thursday’s tumble after rival Intel Corp. told analysts it plans to sell a lower-cost computer networking switch, market sources said. The product is seen as competing directly with networking switches from 3Com, a market leader based in Santa Clara, Calif.

AMEX

Hasbro, unchanged at 35-1/4.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into Michael Milken’s holdings of shares in toymaker Hasbro, which the former junk-bond dealer bought with Larry Ellison, chairman and chief executive of Oracle Corp. The SEC is said to be investigating whether the stock purchase violates Milken’s prior agreement to be banned from life from the securities business.