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Blue-chips lower in

slow summer market

NEW YORK: Blue-chip stocks closed lower on a typically slow summer Friday as the government's July jobs report failed to provide any clear direction for the market.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 17.96 points to 4,683.46. For the week, the index was off 32.05 points.

In the broader market, advancing issues led declines 1,140 to 1,043 on moderate volume of 313 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange.

"This has been a week of rest for the Dow," said Alfred Goldman, technical analyst at A.G. Edwards & Sons.

Analysts said the July employment report was unable to provide the market with direction.

The Labour Department said that 55,000 jobs were created in July, which was weaker than expected, but wages showed their biggest jump since October with a rise of 7 cents an hour.

The government also revised upwards the June payrolls to a rise of 250,000 from a previously reported increase of 215,000.

"The market took it as ho-hum. I think investors are becoming wary of overreacting to everything," said Peggy Farley, chief executive officer at Amas Securities Inc.

Analysts said investors were increasingly sensitive to interest rates as statistics painted a mixed picture of the economy.

"No one wants to say there are any clear trends there," said Christine Callies, analyst at Brown Brothers and Harriman. "The data is consistent with the soft landing scenario. Soft landing employment trends would be erratic."

Farley said at this stage, investors should take any advantage of market rallies to take profits.

"The market has lost enthusiasm and if there are stocks in which you have enormous profits, you should lighten your positions to have cash available," she said.

"At the same time you should look closely at some of the stocks that have gone down a lot and start picking them up," Farley added.

The technology stocks rebounded after being the target of heavy profit-taking this week. The Nasdaq index, heavily weighted with technology stocks, rose 8.39 points to 991.09.

Among technology stocks, Microsoft rose 2-3/4 to 93-7/8 and Cisco Systems gained 2 to 54-1/4. Sybase was up 1/2 to 34-7/8 and Novell added 1-1/8 to 18-3/8.

Southern Pacific headed the most actives list on the NYSE, gaining 1-7/8 to 23-3/4 on the company's merger pact with Union Pacific Corp. Union Pacific, whose shares rose 1-1/4 to 66-1/4, expects its proposed acquisition of Southern Pacific to be completed by mid-1996.

The stock of Moovies Inc., operator of video speciality stores, jumped 4 to 16 in the first day of trading.

American Waste Services rose 1 to 4-5/8 and Kimmins Environmental Services gained 1-3/8 to 5-3/4 on speculation that financier Wayne Huizenga may buy both or take stakes in them.

Huizenga became chairman of Republic Waste on Thursday. The company, whose shares fell 5/8 to 24-1/2, said it plans to acquire between six and 12 companies by year-end but has not held talks with American Waste and Kimmins.

Quantum Health tumbled 4-11/16 to 14-1/8 after the company late Thursday reported lower second-quarter earnings.

The Standard & Poor's composite index of 500 stocks edged up 0.19 of a point to 558.94. The American Stock Exchange index rose 1.35 to 524.20.

The NYSE Composite index of all listed common stocks fell 0.02 to 299.91. The average share was down 1 cent.

The Wilshire Associates Equity Index - the market value of NYSE, American and Nasdaq issues - was 5,526.706 up 5.979 or 0.11 percent.-Reuter