Prices lift at end of week

Press, 1 April 1985, Page 32

Prices lift at end of week

NZPA-AP New York Stock prices rose in Wall Street on Friday in response to encouraging news on the economic outlook.

The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials rose 6.07 points to close at 1266.78, cutting its loss for the week to 0.67 points. Before the market opened, the United States Government reported that the index of leading United States economic indicators rose 0.7 per cent in February. The increase

in the index, which is designed to detect future economic trends, was larger than had been predicted in most advance estimates on Wall Street

In addition, market-watchers said, it appeared to be just about where investors wanted it to be — neither high enough to raise fears of upward pres-

sure on interest rates, nor low enough to aggravate worries about a slowing in the pace of business activity. To give the market another boost, there was the United States Federal reserve’s report late yesterday of a SUSSOOM decline in the basic measure of the American money supply for the week ended March 18.

Interest rates fell in the credit markets as that news came out.

With all that, however, analysts said investing institutions still seemed to be intent on selling some blue-chip issues before making their reports for the first quarter. Closing prices on Friday for a selection of issues were: