The stock market moved higher early today in heavy trading after tumbling in the previous session on fears of higher interest rates. The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials, which slipped 37 points on Thursday, was up 6.93 points at 2,101.17 in the first half hour of trading. Volume on the Big Board came to 120.03 million shares. Gainers led losers by about 11 to 7 with 674 up, 444 down and 520 unchanged as of 10 a.m. on Wall Street. Traders kept a sharp eye on the credit markets, where sharply lower bond prices helped trigger Thursday's decline in stock prices. Rumors that West Germany and possibly Japan might be preparing to hike interest rates sparked fear that the Federal Reserve might be pressed to do the same to support the dollar. ``The bond market could drag us down again today like it did yesterday,'' said Peter Vandenberg, a trader with Shearson Lehman Hutton Inc. Traders steadied themselves for the year's second ``triple-witching hour,'' in which groups of stock-index futures, stock-index options and options on individual stocks will expire today. ``There's some nervousness,'' Vandenberg said, ``but the last few expirations have been orderly, with no major problems.'' Among actively traded issues, Texaco was unchanged at 49{, IBM was up [ at 117\, Ford Motor was unchanged at 52[, and General Electric was unchanged at 43\. The NYSE's composite index of all its listed common stocks was up 0.30 at 152.74. At the American Stock Exchange, the market value index was off 0.40 at 306.67. On Thursday the Dow Jones industrial average tumbled 37.16 points to close at 2,094.24. Declining issues outnumbered advances by about 5 to 2 on the NYSE, with 435 up, 1,089 down and 425 unchanged. Big Board volume totaled 161.55 million shares, against 150.26 million shares in the previous session.
