Dow Edges Higher In Roller-Coaster Session

Stocks steadied Thursday after nose-diving Wednesday. But investors grew noncommittal ahead of today’s key report on January employment, leaving most market indicators little changed.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 26.16 to close at 6,773.06, having surrendered an early 20-point gain before slipping to a loss of 33 points in the early afternoon.

Broader market measures meandered to a mixed finish, hovering near Wednesday’s closing levels.

Indexes of blue-chip and larger-company issues outperformed those dominated by technology shares, many of which extended Wednesday’s selloff as investors moved to secure more profits from January’s impressive advance.

Outside the volatile technology sector, however, things were much calmer in the aftermath of Wednesday’s late tailspin, which started after the Federal Reserve confirmed expectations by holding the central bank’s interest rates steady.

The ratio of advancing issues and decliners was almost even on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume was heavy at 519.38 million shares as of 4 p.m., but down from Wednesday’s hectic tally of. 577.49 million.

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

NYSE

Dean Witter, Discover & Co., up 1/2 at 41-1/8.

Morgan Stanley Group, up 1-1/4 at 66-1/2.

The stocks rose again in active trading a day after the companies announced an agreement to merge in a $9.9 billion deal that will create the world’s biggest securities firm.

America Online, unchanged at 38-1/8.

After Thursday’s close, AOL reported it lost $154.8 million in the last quarter of 1996, hurt by the cost of a marketing blitz that drew more customers than the on-line service could handle.

AnnTaylor Stores, down 1-1/4 at 18-3/8.

The women’s apparel retailer plans to close all nine of its AnnTaylor Studio shoe stores, which had an operating loss of $1.1 million before taxes in 1996.

Manpower, up 5-5/8 at 35-5/8.

The Milwaukee-based staffing services provider reported fourth-quarter earnings above analysts expectations.

NASDAQ

Intel, down 4-5/16 at 152-15/16.

The chip maker’s high-flying shares, up nearly 26 percent on the year before tumbling 7-1/4 points on Wednesday following two brokerage downgrades, fell again as investors secured some more profits.

Instrumentation Laboratory SpA, down 3-1/4 at 4-1/4.

The maker of lab equipment expects lower earnings and revenue for the year ended Nov. 30.

USA Detergents, down 13-7/8 at 20-3/8.

The cleaning products concern warned that it does not expect fourth-quarter revenues and profits to meet expectations.