Stocks Creep Higher In Quiet Friday Session

Stocks edged higher Friday in light trading, as investors eased quietly into the weekend.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 9.76 points to 5,636.64. The Dow rose more than 20 points at the open, quickly gave back those gains but then slogged higher throughout the remainder of the session. The Dow added 51.67 points for the week, which began with a 98.63-point surge Monday to a record 5,683.60.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by 4 to 3 on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was light by recent standards at 327.82 million shares as of 4 p.m., down from Thursday’s already light pace.

Traders breathed a sigh of relief after weeks of high anxiety.

“This is a rare quiet Friday,” said Phil Erlanger, who runs his own stock research firm in Acton, Mass. He said he took the opportunity to assess the past several weeks, “and the thing that I see is that the stock market had plenty of opportunity to really have that 10-to-15 percent correction that everybody was looking for, and it just doesn’t do it.

“You’ve got rising interest rates, the tech stocks … getting roiled, and yet the stock market just holds together.”

Some of the stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily Friday:

NYSE

General Motors fell 1/4 to 53-3/8.

Striking auto workers approved a settlement to end an 18-day walkout at General Motors Corp. that nearly brought the automaker to a standstill. CS First Boston lowered its first-quarter earnings estimate by 30 cents a share to $1.65 a share.

Philip Morris fell 1/2 to 86-1/4.

The cigarette maker was countering charges that it hid what it knew about tobacco addiction and manipulates nicotine levels in cigarettes to keep smokers addicted.

Sunbeam Corp. fell 2-1/8 to 17-5/8.

The Fort Lauderdale maker of household appliances said it expects first-quarter earnings to be 20 cents to 25 cents a share, well below analysts’ average estimate of 31 cents. The company blamed poor shipments of outdoor products. The stock had made strong gains earlier this week on takeover rumors.

NASDAQ

Biomet fell 2-1/8 to 13-3/4.

Earnings for the third quarter ended Feb. 28 rose to 20 cents a share from 18 cents a year ago. The company terminated its agreement to develop resorbable synthetic bone and hard tissue substitute products with U.S. Surgical Corp. As a result, Biomet said it will report a fourth-quarter gain of $2.9 million to reflect payments from U.S. Surgical.

Informix fell 2-7/8 to 29-7/8.

Salomon Brothers downgraded the stock to hold from buy.

Interneuron Pharmaceuticals Inc. rose 4 to 35-1/2.

Progenitor Inc., a majority-owned unit of Interneuron, applied for a patent for the leptin receptor protein and its associated applications. Progenitor said several organizations are targeting leptin and its receptor to develop treatments for diabetes and obesity.

Imatron fell point 1/16 to 2-1/2.

The San Francisco health care device maker posted a fourth-quarter loss of 3 cents a share, compared with a profit of 1 cent last year. The company attributed the loss to its investment in its HeartScan Imaging unit and lower-than-expected scanner shipments due to problems securing letters of credit from foreign client banks.