Dow Snaps Back, Hits Record High

Stocks recovered from some early-session weakness to climb to record levels Wednesday, as investors responded to new indications of a weakening in the economy.

The buying also reflected trading strategies tied to Friday’s expiration of options, index options and index futures options, a quarterly event known as “triple witching,” which can inject volatility into the market.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 6.57 to 4,491.08, topping its record close of 4,485.20 set June 6. The blue chip index dropped 21 points early in the session.

Despite the Dow’s record, the number of declining issues held a slight edge on advancers on the Big Board. Volume was moderately heavy at 330 million shares as of 4 p.m., down from 339.68 million Tuesday.

Traders and analysts said the market behavior reflected nervousness ahead of the triple-witching session. Others said the market was just taking a breather, along with bonds, after sharp run-ups earlier this week.

“You’ve had two big days, so that by itself dictates that the market get quiet a bit,” said Larry Rice, chief investment officer at Josephthal, Lyon & Ross.

Some of the stocks that moved substantially Wednesday:

NYSE

Disney fell 1 1/4 to 58 1/4.

The stock gave back some of its gains earlier in the week based on enthusiastic reception of the entertainment company’s new “Pocahontas” feature film. Brown Brothers Harriman cut its short-term rating, saying the shares were too expensive.

Storage Technology rose 1 1/2 to 23 1/2.

IBM on Tuesday told analysts that demand for mainframe data storage products has been more robust than expected.

NASDAQ

Sybase rose 3 1/2 to 28 1/2.

The stock rose amid rumors that it was an acquisition target of IBM, Microsoft or Sun Microsystems. Sybase told Dow Jones News Services that it was “not aware of any basis” for the speculation. IBM and Microsoft said they had no interest in acquiring Sybase.

AMEX

Greyhound Lines rose 1/4 to 4 7-16.

The long-distance bus company said Tuesday that its May passenger miles rose 9.3 percent, while sales gained 10.7 percent. Its yield per passenger/mile rose 1.2 percent.

Thermolase Corp. rose 3 3/4 to 20 3/8.

An Oppenheimer & Co. analyst commenced coverage of the shares with an “outperform” rating and said she expects the company to break even in 1995, earn 7 cents per share in 1996 and 14 cents in 1997.