Stock prices drifted lower in an erratic session today, struggling to stabilize after the market's recent recent steep decline. The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials, which fell 44.99 points on Tuesday, dropped 2.49 to 2,031.65 by 3 p.m. on Wall Street. Losers outnumbered gainers by about 7 to 4 in the overall tally of New York Stock Exchange-listed issues, with 512 up, 889 down and 537 unchanged. Analysts said the market's drop over the past week had pushed prices down to levels where they attracted some buyers looking for ``bargains.'' But they also said widespread concern persisted over the recent rise in interest rates. Several large banks raised their prime lending rates today from 9.5 percent to 10 percent, a day after the Federal Reserve increased the rate it charges on loans to private financial institutions. The timing of the Federal Reserve's increase in its discount rate from 6 percent to 6.5 percent suggested to many Wall Streeters that the Fed was seriously worried about inflation and was becoming more aggressive in an attempt to stop it from heating up. For one thing, the rate increase came just as the Treasury was beginning a quarterly sale of debt securities. Among actively traded blue chips, International Business Machines fell { to 118]; Ford Motor lost } to 49{; General Electric was unchanged at 40[, and American Express rose \ to 27}. Convergent Inc. jumped 2 7-16 to 5~ in the over-the-counter market. Unisys Corp. agreed to acquire the company for $7 a share. The NYSE's composite index of all its listed common stocks dropped .23 to 148.00. At the American Stock Exchange, the market value index was down .51 at 296.06. Volume on the Big Board came to 149.69 million shares with an hour to go.
