Dow Up 7.50; Traders Await Report on Deficit

The stock market pieced together a modest gain today as traders awaited Friday’s monthly report on the nation’s international trade position.

The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials rose 7.50 to 2,311.43 on top of a 22.68-point gain Wednesday.

Advancing issues outnumbered declines by about 4 to 3 on the New York Stock Exchange, with 805 up, 599 down and 535 unchanged.

Big Board volume totaled 177.45 million shares, against 154.22 million in the previous session.

The NYSE’s composite index gained .30 to 165.51.

The dollar rose against leading overseas currencies in early foreign exchange trading.

That helped prompt a slight increase in bond prices and a decline in interest rates in the domestic credit markets.

But buying interest in the dollar, bonds and stocks waned a bit as the session passed, apparently because of worries about Friday’s monthly trade report.

Wall Street economists generally expect the figures to show about a $12-billion trade deficit for December, compared to the $12.5-billion gap between imports and exports previously reported for November.

Bond prices rose in early trading today on technical factors and the absence of any signs that West Germany would increase its discount rate.

The Treasury’s benchmark 30-year bond rose 1/4 point, or $2.50 per $1,000 face amount, while its yield, which moves in the opposite direction from its price, fell to 9.05% from 9.07% late Wednesday.

In a low volume session, bond prices were rising for the second straight day.

“The market had been deeply oversold,” said William Sullivan, director of money market research at Dean Witter Reynolds Inc.

In the secondary market for Treasury bonds, prices of short-term governments rose 3/32 point, intermediate maturities were up 1/8 point and long-term issues increased 9/32 point, according to the Telerate Inc. financial information service.

The movement of a point is equivalent to a change of $10 in the price of a bond with a $1,000 face value.

The Shearson Lehman Hutton daily Treasury bond index, which measures price movements on outstanding Treasury issues with maturities of a year or longer, was up 1.31 to 1,127.39.

In corporate trading, industrials were up. Moody’s investment grade corporate bond index, which measures price movements on 80 corporate bonds with maturities of five years or longer, rose 0.18 to 297.25.

The federal funds rate, the interest on overnight loans between banks, was quoted at 9 5/16%, down from 9 3/8% late Wednesday.