High-Tech Slump Holds Dow To 6.5-Point Gain

Stocks posted moderate gains on Friday despite a late sell-off by technology issues.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended 6.50 higher at 4,769.21, having cut a gain of more than 20 points posted earlier in the session.

“It’s been an extremely volatile market,” said James Solloway, research director at Argus Research.

“Investors don’t really know which way to jump, and so what we’ve seen over the last few weeks is fairly sharp moves before a reversal sets in. That will continue to be the case until we get through a good part of the earnings reporting season.”

Advancing issues had a narrow 6-to-5 lead on decliners on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was moderately heavy at 313.64 million shares as of 4 p.m., down from 367.42 million on Thursday.

The market waffled at the open but soon headed higher, as bonds rose in response to an early morning Labor Department report that businesses added 121,000 payroll jobs in September, less than analysts expected. The unemployment rate stayed at 5.6 percent.

Stocks also took some support from the dollar, which was higher against the mark and the yen ahead of this weekend’s meeting of the big seven industrial countries.

Some of the stocks that moved substantially Friday:

NYSE

Alcoa rose 1-1/2 to 53-1/8.

The aluminum miner and processor said its third-quarter earnings rose to $1.27 per share from 39 cents a year ago.

Niagara Mohawk Power fell 1-1/8 to 11-3/4.

The Syracuse, N.Y., company said it would create a separate company to run its nuclear power plants and freeze or reduce electricity prices over the next five years. The proposal, which would allow customers to choose their electric supplier, comes a day after a related deregulation proposal by New York’s other utilities.

Unisys rose 1/2 to 8-3/8.

The Blue Bell, Penn. computer and defense equipment maker said it would form three separate businesses - information services, global support services and computer systems - in a bid to improve profit margin. Unisys said the breakup should cut costs by about $400 per year but require a big charge against fourth-quarter earnings.

Texas Instruments unchanged at 74-7/8.

IBM fell 1/8 to 94-3/8.

Motorola fell 3 to 68-7/8.

Most semiconductor stocks ended lower after giving up substantial gains made after Merrill Lynch raised its short-term rating on Intel, a flagship semiconductor maker, to “buy” from “above average.”

NASDAQ

Intel rose 1-1/8 to 62.

Merrill Lynch & Co. raised its short-term rating on the stock to “buy” from “above average.”

DSC Communications fell 8 to 44-3/8.

The Dallas-based company, which develops and sells digital network system products, said third-quarter earnings will be lower than analysts expected because of a slow-down in switching system revenues and in its European business. For the third quarter ended Sept. 30, 1994, DSC reported net income of $43.2 million, or 37 cents per share, on revenues of $260.6 million.