Late Selling Wipes Out Most Of Dow’s Gain

The Dow Jones industrials ended in positive territory Friday, even though a late wave of selling erased most of the day’s gains. Broad market indexes turned in a mixed performance.

The Dow industrials closed up 12.64 at 5,087.13 after losing most of a 33-point gain. The blue-chip index has risen seven out of the last eight trading sessions and added 38.29 points for the week.

Advancers led decliners by about 3 to 2 on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume on the Big Board was 392.66 million shares, off from Thursday’s pace of 440.13 million.

Stocks and bonds were supported all day by a report from the National Association of Purchasing Management that its index of business activity fell in November to its lowest level since June.

The report, which also noted a rise in inventories, sent the 30-year benchmark Treasury bond up about 5/8 point and its yield falling to just over 6 percent.

The stock market rebounded Friday morning after a sell-off Thursday, when the Dow industrials dropped sharply in a late wave of computer-driven selling. Thursday’s decline ended a run of six consecutive all-time highs.

“Yes, it’s the bond market, yes it’s the NAPM report, but the real issue is that we’re in a bull market because the outlook for the economy, interest rates, inflation, corporate earnings, remain positive, and what’s going on in Congress to cut the budget deficit is positive,” said Alfred E. Goldman, a vice president at A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc.

Some of the stocks that moved substantially Friday:

NYSE

Magma Copper rose 6-1/4 to 27-5/8.

The stock surged after the Tucson copper producer agreed to be acquired by the Australian conglomerate Broken Hill Proprietary Co. Ltd. in a deal valued at $2.4 billion including assumed debt.

Baxter rose 1/8 to 42.

Baxter is talking with W.R. Grace & Co. about buying its National Medical Care Inc. kidney dialysis business, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Journal said analysts estimate it could cost $4.5 billion to buy all of National Medical Care.

Humana fell 7/8 to 27-1/8.

Coastal Physician Group Inc. rose 1/4 to 14-3/8.

Coastal completed the sale of 47 of its Florida clinics to Humana for about $50 million. Coastal said net proceeds from the sale would be used to reduce bank debt.

Micron Technology fell 2-1/2 to 51-3/4.

Motorola fell 1-1/8 to 60-3/8.

National Semiconductor fell 3/8 to 21.

The Washington Post reports Fidelity has been selling these shares despite being publicly bullish on technology stocks.

NASDAQ

Gateway 2000 fell 1 to 26-5/8.

Dell Computer fell 3-1/2 to 40-3/4.

Computer hardware stocks fell following a Wall Street Journal report that personal-computer demand would be soft for the holiday season.

AMEX

Oncor fell 1-7/8 to 4.

A Food and Drug Administration panel recommended against approval of Oncor’s diagnostic tool designed to predict the recurrence of breast cancer in patients whose lymph nodes are free of cancer cells.