Dow Finishes Sharply Lower In Wild Session

Even by recent standards, stocks put on an erratic display Thursday, sliding and charging back, only to slide again, and seemingly with little rhyme or reason.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 92.90 to 7,694.43. Less that an hour before the close, though, the Dow was up 25 points, having erased a 129-point loss that briefly pushed the blue-chip barometer to its lowest level since late June.

Broad-market indicators also faltered over the final hour after recovering from an early sell-off that seemed misguided against the backdrop of a very strong bond market.

“Volatility is the name of the game,” said Alan Ackerman, market analyst at Fahnestock & Co. “This market has already established itself as king of swing.”

Smaller-company shares, which have benefited from the recent exodus from the blue-chip sector, closed at a record high for the second straight session.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a slim 10-to-9 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume totaled 486.22 million shares as of 4 p.m., down slightly from Wednesday’s modest pace.

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

NYSE

Evans Withycombe Residential, up 1-51/64 at 23-47/64.

Equity Residential Properties Trust agreed to acquire the rival apartment company in a deal valued at $1 billion. Equity Residential, a Chicagobased firm run by financier Sam Zell, will pay $625 million in securities and assume $432 million in debt from Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Evans.

Caldor, up 3/16 at 1-15/16.

A judge granted the department store chain another six-month extension for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as the company continues to reorganize.

LSI Logic, down 1-5/8 at 31-5/16.

SoundView Financial downgraded its short-term rating on semiconductor maker to “hold” from “buy,” the Dow Jones News Service reported.

NASDAQ

Altera, down 9 at 52-3/8.

The semiconductor maker warned late Wednesday that its third-quarter results will be shy of company’s expectations due to weak North American demand. Thursday, Bear Stearns and Hambrect & Quist lowered their investment rating on San Jose-based Altera, the Dow Jones News Service reported.

Ascend Communications, down 2-1/2 at 41-3/8.

Merrill Lynch lowered its near-term rating on the computer networking concern from “accumulate” to “neutral.”

Excite, up 5-5/32 at 22-17/32.

Alex. Brown & Sons raised its rating on the Internet concern, the Dow Jones News Service reported.