Stocks Edge Lower in Dull Session : Except for Takeover Issues, There’s Little to Excite Traders

NEW YORK —  Wall Street closed slightly lower on Monday, as takeover stocks dominated trading and the broader market awaited Friday’s jobs data and next week’s presidential election.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 1.24 to 2,148.65, while declining stocks outpaced advancing issues by about 4 to 3 in nationwide trading of New York Stock Exchange listed stocks. Volume was lighter than Friday’s moderate 146.3 million shares as 143.5 million shares traded hands on the New York Stock Exchange.

Stocks came under some pressure from an early decline in the dollar, but mostly just slipped under their own weight, analysts said.

“There’s nothing around to stimulate it,” said Larry Wachtel, an analyst for Prudential-Bache Securities Inc. “There’s all kinds of incentives to sit around on one’s rear end and await developments.”

Many participants were said to be sidelined, awaiting Tuesday’s meeting of the Federal Reserve’s policy-making arm and U.S. unemployment figures for October, scheduled for release Friday. The presidential election has also dampened activity.

Takeover Stocks Dominate

Takeover issues were “leading the parade” of stocks as they have in recent weeks, said Tom Walsh, head equity trader at Nikko Securities. “But (other than that), I don’t see any reason for the market to do anything,” he added.

“It’s a dull day once you get away from Kraft and Whittaker,” said George Pirrone, senior trader at Dreyfus Corp. He said the election also “creates a certain amount of jitters.”

Kraft and RJR Nabisco were among the exchange’s most active issues, while other takeover stocks also dominated trading. Shares of Kraft rose 7 to 103 1/2 after news that the food company signed a merger agreement with tobacco giant Philip Morris Cos., whose stock rose 5/8 to 95 3/8.

RJR Nabisco, now considering a $20.3-billion offer by leveraged buyout specialists Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., fell 1 to 83 3/4 on the market’s concern that Nabisco’s management would be unable to top the bid.

Whittaker Corp. rose 6 5/8 to 41 1/2, after the Los Angeles-based metals and chemical firm said it received an unsolicited $47.50-a-share bid from Caiola Associates of Mountainside, N.J., valuing it at around $317.3 million.

Among other individual issues, American Telephone & Telegraph Co. gained 5/8 to 28 5/8 after receiving a $929-million Air Force computer contract Friday.

Retailing giant Sears, Roebuck & Co., which announced a major restructuring after sluggish third-quarter earnings, declined 1 7/8 to 41 3/4. The company’s plans were less aggressive than many investors had expected, traders said.

Tokyo Closes Higher

Budget Rent a Car surged 10 1/8 to 27 on the over-the-counter market, after news that it will be bought for $30 a share, or $333 million, by a group led by investment firm Gibbons, Green van Amerongen Ltd.

The NYSE’s composite index edged up 0.15 to 156.94.

Standard & Poor’s industrial index rose 0.59 to 321.26; its 500-stock composite index was up 0.44 at 278.97.

The American Stock Exchange index slipped 0.80 to 300.95; NASDAQ’s composite index closed at 382.46, down 0.33.

The Wilshire index of 5,000 equities closed at 2,750.804, up 1.489 from Friday.

In Tokyo, share prices seesawed through the day to end modestly higher Monday for the sixth straight session of gains. The Nikkei 225-share index gained 21.53 to close at 27,982.54. It posted a 219.67-point gain Saturday.

However, share prices finished lower after a featureless session on the London Stock Exchange. The Financial Times 100-share index fell 6 to 1,852.4.