Dow Edges Up In Seesaw Session

Stocks veered up and down through a volatile session Tuesday that finished with the Dow Jones industrial average at another record close but the broader market mixed.

A booming bond market, which drove the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond back below 7 percent for the first time in more than a year, dazzled investors and made it impossible for them to ignore stocks of companies that stand to benefit from a retreat in borrowing costs.

The rise in the Dow industrials reflected gains in just a few stocks, mainly economically sensitive ones, including Caterpillar. The blue-chip indicator climbed 6.91 points past Monday’s high to end at a new peak of 4,390.78.

Gaining Big Board stocks beat losers by about 4 to 3. Volume on the NYSE floor swelled to 361.31 million shares as of 4 p.m. Eastern time from 291.77 million shares on Monday.

Don Hays, investment strategist at Wheat First-Butcher & Singer, said although stocks had a mixed day the session was anything but dull.

“The market didn’t have a bad day but it had tremendous volatility,” he observed. “The cross-currents were very, very flamboyant.”

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

NYSE

Equitable Cos., down 2 1/2 to 21 7/8.

The stock sank after the company posted unexpectedly poor firstquarter results. It earned $65.2 million, or 31 cents a share, compared to $55 million, or 23 cents in the 1994 first quarter. Revenues were essentially flat at $1.65 billion.

Kimberly-Clark, up 1 3/4 to 59.

The stock was in the spotlight after the maker of Kleenex tissues and Huggies diapers announced plans to spin off its tobacco-related businesses in the United States and France.

Ford Motor, up 3/8 to 27 1/8.

The automaker’s stock was a focus of attention again in the wake of the disclosure Monday that Ford plans to cut auto parts purchasing costs by five percent a year through the decade.

NASDAQ

West One Bancorp, down 7/8 to 32 5/8.

The stock backed off after being bid up Monday in response to news that West One will be bought by U.S. Bancorp for $1.6 billion in stock.

AMEX

Echo Bay, down 3/8 to 9 1/8 in heavy American volume of more than 864,000 shares.

Stocks of gold and precious metals mining companies encountered selling as inflation fears faded.