Blue Chips Tumble As Profit-Taking Intensifies

Blue-chip stocks suffered their worst drop in more than a month Wednesday as profit-taking on the market’s recent exploits intensified, muffling enthusiasm over new signs of strength in the semiconductor industry.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 36.15 to 5,930.62 - its worst one-day point loss since a nearly 50-point drop on Sept. 5 - halting a three-day assault on the 6,000-mark. On Monday and Tuesday, the blue-chip average made its first forays past 6,000, but quickly slipped below again.

Broader measures of blue-chip and other large companies also fell sharply, with analysts attributing the selling pressure to another weak day in the bond market and continuing worries over whether upcoming reports on third-quarter earnings will support the market’s lofty heights.

“The buy side is not going to commit until they have confirmation that the numbers for the quarter are OK,” said Joe Battipaglia, chief investment strategist at Gruntal & Co. “That will carry on until we start hearing from Intel, IBM, Microsoft and the big industrials.”

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 5-to-3 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume totaled 405.96 million shares as of 4 p.m., down from 434.66 million Tuesday.

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

NYSE

Marvel Entertainment Group, down 2-1/4 at 5-5/8.

The New York-based maker of comic books, trading cards and toys expects to post a third-quarter loss. Marvel said late Tuesday its results were hurt by continued weakness in its comic book operation and trading-card business, which hasn’t fully recovered from the 1994 baseball strike.

Time Warner, up 1 at 41-1/8.

Chairman Gerald Levin told analysts he wants additional cost cutting following the purchase of Turner Broadcasting that could over time double the $300 million in savings already planned.

Micron Technology, up 3/8 at 32-3/4.

LSI Logic, up 1-3/4 at 25-7/8.

Texas Instruments, up 2-1/8 at 57-1/4.

Intel (Nasdaq), down 3/4 at 100-7/8.

A 9 percent increase in computer chip orders during September buoyed the Semiconductor Industry Association’s book-to-bill ratio to 0.99, its highest level since December.

NASDAQ

SBS Technologies, down 3-1/2 at 19-3/4.

The Albuquerque-based maker of electronic and computer products agreed to buy Bit 3 Computer, a privately held maker of computer networking products, for $24 million.

Lason Holding, up at 19-3/4 from initial offering at 17.

The stock traded for the first time after the Troy, Mich.-based provider of data management and business communications raised $51 million in an initial public stock offering.