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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Seesawing Market Finishes Mixed

Associated Press

Stocks do-si-doed and finished mixed on a double-witching day Friday, with the biggest losses in the technology sector.

The Dow Jones industrial average bounced around before finishing the day up 4.24 at 6,931.62. The slight gain came after two days of losses that followed the market’s run to a high of 7,067.46 on Tuesday. For the week, the index of 30 blue-chip issues fell 57.34.

The “double-witching” expiration of stock and stock-index options contracts Friday helped keep the market volatile, said Hugh Johnson chief investment officer at First Albany Corp.

“Where there is an expiration day, you tend to get very unpredictable swings in the market, and today was really no exception,” he said.

The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was down 1.03 to 801.77 while the NYSE composite index fell 0.08 to 421.01.

The American Stock Exchange market value index closed at 597.29, down 0.14, and profit-taking pulled the technology-laden Nasdaq composite down 13.08 to 1,334.32.

On the Nasdaq Stock Market, Cisco Systems was down 4.62-1/2 to 58.37-1/2, while Intel fell 3-1/2 to 146.37-1/2.

IBM fell the furthest among the 30 Dow industrials, dropping 3.62-1/2 to 137.62-1/2.

“In some ways it’s more of the same,” Johnson said, noting the technology sector has been weaker in recent weeks.

“I don’t think the market today is really telling you anything about the underlying fundamentals,” he said.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume was 487.077 million compared with 490.267 on Thursday.

Among big movers, Scholastic Corp. plunged 24.75 at 36.75 on the Nasdaq. The New York publisher announced late Thursday that it will report a third-quarter loss because of low sales of its children’s books.

Philip Morris was down .87-1/2 to 129.12-1/2 on the NYSE, where Disney was up .62-1/2 at 75.37-1/2.

Stemming some of the overall losses were a stronger dollar and higher bond prices. Weakness in both markets on Thursday sent stocks tumbling.

A weak dollar signals foreign investors might be pulling out of their U.S. holdings like stocks, and lower bond prices are frequently seen as a sign that corporate profits could be hurt by higher borrowing costs.

Overseas, Tokyo’s Nikkei stock average fell 0.1 percent, Frankfurt’s DAX index was down 0.4 percent and London’s FT-SE 100 was down 0.4 percent.