Profit-Taking Snaps Strong November Rally

Stocks edged lower in choppy trading Thursday as the November rally paused amid some profit-taking in bellwether technology names and other blue-chip shares.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 11.55 to 6,418.47, marking only the second time in 14 sessions that the blue-chip barometer has declined. The Dow, which on Wednesday crossed the 6,400 mark for the first time, started the day with a small gain, but fell more than 36 points by late morning before recovering.

“You have to come in each day and expect some profit-taking because (the Dow) has gone up about 450 points in 18 sessions,” said Ricky Harrington, a technical analyst at Interstate/Johnson Lane in Charlotte, N.C.

Broad-market indexes were mostly lower, with the technology-laden Nasdaq market showing the widest loss. Still, analysts found it encouraging that the selling pressure was fairly modest after this month’s surprisingly sharp advance.

“It’s a pause which everyone was expecting at one point or another. It’s healthy for the market to go sideways and consolidate after such a nice move,” said Robert Freedman, chief investment officer for the John Hancock Funds in Boston.

Advancing issues were even with decliners on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume totaled 468.70 million shares as of 4 p.m., down from 489.40 million on Wednesday.

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

NYSE

AMR, down 1/2 at 90-1/2.

Boeing, up 1-1/8 at 97-1/2.

United Technologies, up 7/8 at 134-1/4.

American Airlines parent AMR signed up Boeing as the sole supplier of up to 630 jets to refurbish the carrier’s fleet over the next 20 years.

Olsten, down 5-3/8 at 14-1/2.

AccuStaff, down 2-1/4 at 21-1/4.

Personnel Group of America, down 2-5/8 at 22-1/2.

Interim Services, down 3-1/8 at 36.

Robert Half International, down 2-3/8 at 35-7/8.

Manpower, down 3/4 at 31-1/8.

Olsten warned that it will report lower-than-expected fourth-quarter income due to profit-margin pressures in the staffing services and home health care industries.

NASDAQ CompuServe, down 15/16 at 10-11/16.

H&R Block, down 3/8 at 28.

The on-line service reported a loss of $58 million, or 63 cents a share, for the second quarter ended Oct. 31, blaming customer defections and a delay in shipping new software. H&R Block, which owns 80 percent of CompuServe, reported a $74.1 million loss for the quarter and cut its dividend.

Vanguard Airlines, up 3/4 at 2-5/8

The discount airline announced plans to add new routes from its Kansas City hub, increasing its schedule by 25 percent.