Stocks Lose Ground As Investors Wait

The stock market finished with modest losses Monday after Wall Street gradually worked off the bulk of a deficit.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 17.16 to 4,780.41.

Broader measures fared slightly better. The New York Stock Exchange composite fell 0.44 to 312.56 and Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 0.58 to 582.77. At the American Stock Exchange, the market value index fell 2.71 to 547.87.

Losing issues outnumbered gainers by about 7 to 4 on the Big Board where volume totaled 326.16 million shares as of 4 p.m. EST. On Friday, 459.29 million shares changed hands on the NYSE floor amid trading tied to options expirations.

The markets are acting as if the Federal Reserve will leave rates where they are when the central bank’s policy panel meets next week.

“There’s just not a strong appetite to buy stocks,” said Hugh Johnson, chief investment officer at First Albany Corp. “Septembers and Octobers tend to be pretty bad months for stocks. So it’s tough to tell how long this will last.”

Some of the stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily:

NYSE

Caldor, down 1-1/4 to 3-3/4.

The retailer filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors.

Nike class B, up 7-1/8 to 99-5/8.

The athletic footwear and apparel company posted fiscal first-quarter income of $2.26 a share compared with $1.43 a share a year earlier. It authorized a two-for-one stock split.

Micron Technology, up 2-5/8 to 88-5/8.

Shares of several semiconductor companies were among the selected technology issues that made a comeback and helped the market trim losses. Other active Big Board stocks included Motorola, up 3 to 81-3/4, and Texas Instruments, up 2-1/8 to 77-3/4. IBM rose 2 to 94-1/4.

NASDAQ

Oracle, up 2-1/8 to 39-3/4.

The stock staged a partial rebound from a setback in the previous session in reaction to disappointing quarterly results. News that the company plans to add interactive video to its database software encouraged the rebound.

Summit Technology, up 3-3/4 to 49.

Investors responded enthusiastically to news that Summit received a favorable notice from the Food and Drug Administration regarding its excimer laser to treat nearsightedness.

Landstar System, down 3 to 22-1/4.

Investors unloaded the stock after the company said its third-quarter income will be flat.