Wall Street scene (1)
New York
The stock market's rally sputtered last week as profit taking continued to eat into its recent gains. The Dow Jones industrial average finished the week with a gain of 2.58 points, closing at 919.52.
Analysts said investors continued to keep a weather eye on interest rates, since the government was a major borrower last week. And, as H. Erich Heinemann, an economist at Morgan Stanley & Co., notes, Fed-watchers were on the lookout to see if the Federal Reserve was beginning to play politics with interest rates - keeping them down until after the fall elections.
Investors also watched the trading in Martin Marietta, Bendix, and Allied Corporation to see if the marketplace had any better idea as to what the future held for these three companies. For several days, however, trading was halted in the stocks while they worked out their deal.