Stocks Edge Higher In Quiet Trading

Stocks edged higher in quiet trading Thursday.

But the gains lacked conviction, as many market participants were absent ahead of Monday’s Labor Day holiday.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 5.99 to 4,610.56. Advancing issues led decliners by more than 4 to 3 on the New York Stock Exchange, but a large number of issues were unchanged from Wednesday’s closing prices.

Volume was 300.9 million shares on the Big Board, down from 329.78 million on Wednesday.

“There’s really not all too much right now to get excited about,” said James Solloway, research chief at Argus Research. “Interest rates are pretty steady, the economy is growing sluggishly, the Federal Reserve may cut (interest) rates before the end of the year, but nobody expects the plunge in … rates that we had in the first half of this year.”

Stocks got their most important lift from the bond market, where the 30-year benchmark Treasury bond rose 17/32 point to yield 6.65 percent.

Some of the stocks that moved substantially Thursday:

NYSE

IBM rose 1-3/4 to 103-3/8.

Micron Technology rose 3-3/8 to 76-5/8.

Digital Equipment rose 7/8 to 41-3/4.

Hewlett-Packard rose 1-7/8 to 80.

Compaq rose 1/2 to 47-3/4.

Salomon Brothers reiterated a “strong buy” rating on IBM, as computer stocks were continuing to bail out of a slump suffered earlier this week.

Best Buy rose 1-1/2 to 27-1/4.

The electronics-goods retailer said sales in stores open at least a year rose 7 percent in the second quarter and 14 percent in August, and said second-quarter earnings should be in line with expectations.

NASDAQ

Intel rose 1 to 61-3/8.

Cisco Systems rose 1-3/8 to 65-5/8.

Adobe Systems rose 1-1/2 to 51.

Sun Microsystems rose 2-1/2 to 57-7/8.

Computer-related stocks were recovering from losses suffered earlier in the week.

Gymboree Corp. fell 3 to 29-3/4.

August sales at stores open at least a year fell 6 percent.

AMEX

Turner Broadcasting “A” shares rose 3/8 to 30-7/8.

Turner Broadcasting “B” shares rose 1/4 to 30-3/4.

Analysts raised questions about the viability of Time Warner’s bid for Turner, but investors are hoping rival bids will surface.