Late Sell-Off Erases Gains; Dow Falls 43 Points

Late sell programs erased early gains Wednesday, sending the Dow Jones industrials sharply lower near the close but leaving the broad stock market mixed.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 43.00 at 5,506.21 after giving up a morning gain of more than 30 points.

But the broad market did not perform nearly so poorly. Advancing issues barely led decliners on the New York Stock Exchange. Big Board volume was heavy at 447.05 million shares as of 4 p.m., above Tuesday’s pace.

Blue-chip stocks tracked bonds. The long Treasury bond rose about a half point in the morning, despite robust economic reports, but dipped in the afternoon on a weak Treasury auction of 5-year notes. The 30-year Treasury bond finished up 3-32 point, yielding 6.47 percent.

Stocks “held up as long as they could” in the face of contracting bond prices, but finally dropped into negative territory late in the session, said Leon Brand, a global technical analyst at NatWest Securities.

Some of the stocks that moved substantially Wednesday:

NYSE

AT&T Corp. finished unchanged at 64.

The stock gave up substantial early gains to closed unchanged. The telephone giant said it would launch its consumer Internet-access service by offering its long-distance customers five hours of free Internet use per month for their first year of usage. Additional hours will cost $2.50 apiece.

Micron Technology Inc. fell 3/8 to 33-1/4.

The stock dropped 3-1/8 points Tuesday after the Salt Lake City semiconductor manufacturer said Monday that it will not finish a $2.5 billion DRAM plan in Lehi, Utah, because the chips it would make are already in oversupply worldwide.

US West Media fell 3/8 to 21-1/4.

The regional phone company US West on Tuesday announced a $10.8 billion deal to buy Continental Cablevision, the nation’s third-biggest cable TV system owner.

NASDAQ

America Online fell 1-3/4 to 47-3/8.

Netcom On-Line fell 2-3/8 to 20-3/8.

UUNet Technologies Inc. fell 3-3/8 to 28-5/8.

Netscape Communications fell 2-1/4 to 51-1/2.

PSI Net Inc. fell 1-3/4 to 9-3/8.

Shares of computer online companies fell after AT&T said it would enter the online business by offering free Internet connections to its long-distance customers for a year.

AMEX

PLC Systems Inc. rose 2 to 29-5/8.

The Milford, Mass., company said late Tuesday that its fourth-quarter net earnings were 19 cents a share, compared with a loss of 2 cents a year ago.