Dow Loses 2.66 to Close at 2,047.41 : Investors Await Trade Report Due Thursday

NEW YORK — Stock prices showed little enthusiasm in either direction Tuesday as the market drifted in a quiet, lackluster session, with investors taking to the sidelines ahead of Thursday’s U.S. trade deficit report.

Analysts said investors bided time while awaiting economic news due later in the week.

The Dow Jones average of 30 industrial stocks fell 2.66 points to 2,047.41.

But advancing issues slightly outnumbered decliners on the New York Stock Exchange, with 789 up, 718 down and 477 unchanged.

Big Board volume was 133.17 million shares, up slightly from 131.89 million shares in the previous session, which marked the lightest total since Dec. 29.

Analysts said market watchers were taking note of the light volume. “Right now it’s telling us nobody cares,” said Ronald B. Doran, head of institutional trading at First Albany Corp.

Activity Dampened

He said there was a “boycott” by both institutional and retail investors who are “waiting for some flow of economic news to get cranked up.”

The government is scheduled to release January’s merchandise trade figures on Thursday, just ahead of the year’s first “triple witching hour,” when a group of options and futures on stock indexes will expire simultaneously.

While concern over the two events dampened activity in the previous trading session, analysts indicated market participants may be overestimating the impact both the trade figures and the witching hour might have.

Analysts noted that the market reacted quickly when trade figures were released in the previous two months. Similarly, the past couple of witching hours have been rather uneventful with the adoption of new procedures designed to spread the impact of last-minute maneuvering by computer program traders.

“There was a ho-hum lack of interest in the market. There are no compelling reasons to either aggressively buy stocks or sell stocks,” said Dan Murphy, a trader with C. J. Lawrence Inc.

The transportation sector managed to post a clear, positive trend. Airline stocks rose across the board amid reports that a number of carriers plan to tighten restrictions on discount fares. Allegis rose 1 to 79 1/2, AMR rose 7/8 to 41 7/8, Delta was up 1 1/8 to 47 3/8, and NWA Inc. was up 5/8 to 43 1/2.

Auto Stocks Off

First RepublicBank fell to 1 1/2. Texas’ largest bank holding company said it might seek a federal bailout.

Traders complained that the technology sector failed to help establish a positive trend for the day. IBM fell 1 1/2 to 114 and Digital Equipment fell 2 1/2 to 116.

Auto stocks were off slightly. Chrysler was down 1/8 to 24, Ford was down to 44 and General Motors was unchanged. The major auto makers reported mixed results for the early March sales period.

Among active issues, Goodyear Tire & Rubber jumped 2 5/8 to 62 5/8 on a brokerage house recommendation, analysts said. Bear, Stearns & Co. analyst John Pau said that, when a wave of consolidation in the U.S. tire industry is completed, there will be “fewer competitors, stronger survivors and a more oligopolistic industry structure.”

Pau said he expects Goodyear to earn $8.25 this year on a per-share basis, compared to $7.27 in 1987.

Shares of Compugraphic Corp., a computer and phototypesetting company, rose 1 3/8 to 25 3/4 after its board approved an increased offer of $27 a share from Agfa-Gevaert N. V., a Belgium company. Agfa, which already owns 83% of Compugraphic’s stock, had offered $21.50 a share for the remaining 17% in December.

Monsanto Co. stock fell 3 to 80 1/8 amid safety concerns over its G. D. Searle & Co. unit’s Copper-7 interuterine device, bringing its loss over the past two sessions to more than six points.

Block Trading Up

Analysts believe that the internal Searle documents pertaining to the IUD, which were unsealed by a federal judge on Friday, contain no new information that claimants against the company do not already know, and that the worry about the stock was overdone, chemical industry analysts said.

Large blocks of 10,000 or more shares traded on the NYSE totaled 2,887, compared to 2,806 Monday

The Wilshire index of 5,000 equities closed at 2,638.377, down 0.834 from the day before.

Nationwide turnover in NYSE-listed issues, including trades in those stocks on regional exchanges and in the over-the-counter market, totaled 157.59 million shares.

The NYSE’s composite index of all its listed common stocks fell 0.07 to 149.99.

Standard & Poor’s index of 400 industrials fell 0.66 to 308.55, and S&P;’s 500-stock composite index was down 0.24 to 266.13.

At the American Stock Exchange, the market-value index fell 0.19 to 296.75. The NASDAQ composite index for the over-the-counter market closed at 376.55, off 0.12.

In foreign trading, London stocks rallied after the British government announced a tax cut in its annual budget, and Tokyo shares edged higher in brisk trading.

London’s Financial Times 100-share index rose 20.4 points to 1,839.9, its highest close since Oct. 21, in a session that was extended by a half-hour.

The blue-chip index spiked higher after Finance Minister Nigel Lawson announced a 2% cut to 25% in the basic income tax rate.

Tokyo stocks finished higher, lifting the Nikkei 225-share index 42.16 points to 25,475.77 at the close.