The stock market recorded some spotty losses today as investors studied new signs of sluggishness in business activity. The Commerce Department reported that the index of leading economic indicators was unchanged in June, rather than posting the small increase many analysts had been expecting. Separately, a monthly report from the National Association of Purchasing Management showed a marked dropoff in its measure of activity in the manufacturing sector of the economy. Those developments reinforced expectations in the financial world that business growth was likely to remain meager at best in the near future. In that environment, hopes have flagged on Wall Street for any impending improvement in corporate earnings. But at the same time, interest rates have moved lower of late. In today's credit market activity, prices of long-term government bonds rose about $5 for each $1,000 in face value, lowering their yields to the 8.35 percent-8.37 percent range.
