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Blue chips rally at

close to end higher

NEW YORK: Blue-chip stocks rallied to a higher close Tuesday, spurred by a strong recovery in technology stocks, which had been battered earlier in the session.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 14.44 points at 4,608.44.

In the broader market, declining issues led advances 1,194 to 1,014 on moderate volume of 311 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange.

The Nasdaq composite index, which is laced with technology stocks, ended off 4.51 points at 1,003.64 after rebounding from a loss of nearly 19 points.

"It looks like a climactic selloff (in the technology group). There was very serious bloodletting and investors dumped at almost any price and now we've had a good rebound," said Alfred Goldman, technical research director at A.G. Edwards.

The stock of International Business Machines ended up 7/8 at 102-1/2 after hitting a session low of 98-5/8. Intel rose 1/4 to 58-7/8 after sinking to 57-1/8 early in the day.

"At those levels, money managers are looking to buy back into the stocks," said Phil Orlando, a senior vice president at First Capital Advisers.

Other technology stocks that rebounded included Micron, off 1/4 to 71-1/2 after coming back from a low of 67-5/8 and Texas Instruments, up 2-1/8 to 73 after a plummeting to 66-1/2.

Microsoft added 1-13/16 to 91-7/8 after hitting an intraday low of 87. The recovery was sparked by the company's comment that sales of its new Windows 95 operating system software were meeting or exceeding expectations.

"This is perhaps the start of a two to three-day recovery in the group," said Ricky Harrington, a technical analyst at Interstate/Johnson Lane.

The latest batch of economic data had little impact on trading. Consumer confidence in August came in at 101.0 versus expectations of a 100.5 reading.

New single-family home sales rose 0.4 percent in July to 715,000. Economists had forecast July sales at an annual rate of 712,000.

Analysts said the data reinforced the belief that the outlook for the economy remains positive.

Traders said trading activity will likely dwindle ahead of Monday's Labour Day holiday, despite more economic indicators that include Friday's key jobs report for August.

Among individual issues, shares of the Big three carmakers rose on expectations of stronger car and truck sales in August, analysts said. GM added 1-3/4 to 47-1/4, Ford was up one to 30-1/8 and Chrysler gained one to 53.

RJR Nabisco rose one to 27-3/4 on speculation that the food and tobacco giant could be split in two after Brooke Group received clearance to buy up to 15 percent of the stock.

Chase Manhattan fell 5/8 to 59 and Chemical Bank shed 3/4 to 59-3/8 on profit-taking after Monday's rally on news of their $10 billion merger, which will create the largest bank in the United States and one of the biggest in the world.

Edison Brothers Stores tumbled 2-5/8 to 4 after the company reported a quarterly loss, said it would omit third- and fourth-quarter dividends and said "several" factoring companies stopped providing credit support.

The Standard & Poor's composite index of 500 stocks rose 0.95 of a point to 560.00. The American Stock Exchange index was off 1.99 to 528.19.

The NYSE Composite index of all listed common stocks rose 0.27 to 300.96. The average share was up 3 cents.

The Wilshire Associates Equity Index -- the market value of NYSE, American and Nasdaq issues -- was 5,565.231 down 1.98 or 0.04 percent.-Reuter