[21000001] |Kemper Financial Services Inc., charging that program trading is ruining the stock market, cut off four big Wall Street firms from doing any of its stock-trading business.

[21000002] |The move is the biggest salvo yet in the renewed outcry against program trading, with Kemper putting its money -- the millions of dollars in commissions it generates each year -- where its mouth is.

[21000003] |The Kemper Corp. unit and other critics complain that program trading causes wild swings in stock prices, such as on Tuesday and on Oct. 13 and 16, and has increased chances for market crashes.
[21000004] |Over the past nine months, several firms, including discount broker Charles Schwab & Co. and Sears, Roebuck & Co.'s Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. unit, have attacked program trading as a major market evil.

[21000005] |Several big securities firms backed off from program trading a few months after the 1987 crash.
[21000006] |But most of them, led by Morgan Stanley & Co., moved back in earlier this year.
[21000007] |The most volatile form of program trading is index arbitrage -- the rapid-fire, computer-guided buying and selling of stocks offset with opposite trades in stock-index futures and options.
[21000008] |The object is to capture profits from fleeting price discrepancies between the futures and options and the stocks themselves.

[21000009] |Index arbitrage recently has accounted for about half of all program trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
[21000010] |Last month, program trading accounted for 20.9 million shares a day, or a record 13.8% of the Big Board's average daily volume.

[21000011] |On Tuesday afternoon, Kemper told Bear, Stearns & Co., General Electric Co.'s Kidder, Peabody & Co. unit, Morgan Stanley and Oppenheimer & Co. that it will no longer do business with them because of their commitment to index arbitrage, officials inside and outside these firms confirmed.
[21000012] |Kemper officials declined to identify the firms but acknowledged a long-simmering dispute with four securities firms and said the list of brokers it won't do business with may be lengthened in the months ahead.

[21000013] |"We've been opposed to" index arbitrage "for a long time," said Stephen B. Timbers, chief investment officer at Kemper, which manages $56 billion, including $8 billion of stocks.
[21000014] |"Index arbitrage doesn't work, and it scares natural buyers" of stock.

[21000015] |While Mr. Timbers explained he's "not totally convinced index arbitrage changes the overall level of the stock market," he said that "on an intraday basis, it has major effects.
[21000016] |We've talked to proponents of index arbitrage and told them to cool it because they're ruining the market.
[21000017] |They said, `Too bad,' so we finally said we're not going to do business with them."

[21000018] |Kemper also blasted the Big Board for ignoring the interests of individual and institutional holders.
[21000019] |"The New York Stock Exchange has vested interests" in its big member securities firms "that cloud its objectivity," Mr. Timbers said.
[21000020] |"It has never been interested in what we think.
[21000021] |The Big Board also has a terrible communication problem with individual investors," he added.

[21000022] |Small investors perceive that "big operators" dominate the market, said Thomas O'Hara, chairman of the National Association of Investors and head of the exchange's Individual Investors Advisory Committee set up after the 1987 crash.
[21000023] |"The impression I've got is they'd love to do away with it {program trading}, but they {the exchange} can't do it," he said.

[21000024] |Big Board Chairman John J. Phelan said in a recent interview that he has no inclination to eliminate program trading.
[21000025] |He said the market's volatility disturbs him, but that all the exchange can do is "slow down the process" by using its circuit breakers and shock absorbers.

[21000026] |Mr. Timbers countered that "the mere fact they put in circuit breakers is an admission of their problems."

[21000027] |Morgan Stanley and Kidder Peabody, the two biggest program trading firms, staunchly defend their strategies.
[21000028] |"We continue to believe the position we've taken is reasonable," a Morgan Stanley official said.
[21000029] |"We would stop index arbitrage when the market is under stress, and we have recently," he said, citing Oct. 13 and earlier this week.
[21000030] |Michael Carpenter, president and chief executive officer at Kidder Peabody, said in a recent interview, "We don't think that index arbitrage has a negative impact on the market as a whole."

[21000031] |According to Lawrence Eckenfelder, a securities industry analyst at Prudential-Bache Securities Inc., "Kemper is the first firm to make a major statement with program trading."
[21000032] |He added that "having just one firm do this isn't going to mean a hill of beans.
[21000033] |But if this prompts others to consider the same thing, then it may become much more important.

[21001001] |The following were among yesterday's offerings and pricings in the U.S. and non-U.S. capital markets, with terms and syndicate manager, as compiled by Dow Jones Capital Markets Report:

[21001002] |Blockbuster Entertainment Corp. -- $300 million (redemption amount) of zero-coupon convertible notes, also known as liquid yield option notes, due Nov. 1, 2004, priced at 308.32 to yield at maturity 8%.
[21001003] |The notes are zero-coupon securities and will not pay interest periodically.
[21001004] |The size of the offering was increased from the originally planned $250 million (redemption amount).
[21001005] |The notes are convertible into common stock of Blockbuster Entertainment at $22.26 a share, representing a 12% conversion premium over yesterday's closing price.
[21001006] |Rated Ba-3 by Moody's Investors Service Inc. and single-B-plus by Standard & Poor's Corp., the issue will be sold through Merrill Lynch Capital Markets.

[21001007] |Merrill Lynch & Co. -- $200 million of 8.4% notes due Nov. 1, 2019, priced at 99.771 to yield 8.457%.
[21001008] |The issue, which is puttable back to the company Nov. 1, 1994, was priced at a spread of 70 basis points above the Treasury's five-year note.
[21001009] |Rated single-A-1 by Moody's and single-A-plus by S&P, the noncallable issue will be sold through underwriters led by Merrill Lynch Capital Markets.

[21001010] |Boise Cascade Corp. -- $150 million of 9.45% debentures due 2009, priced at 99.7.

[21001011] |ITT Financial Corp. -- $150 million of 8.35% subordinated notes due Nov. 1, 2004, priced at 99.85 to yield 8.387%.
[21001012] |The noncallable issue, which is puttable back to the company Nov. 1, 1994, was priced at a spread of 62.5 basis points above the Treasury's five-year note.
[21001013] |Rated single-A-2 by Moody's and single-A by S&P, the issue will be sold through underwriters led by Merrill Lynch Capital Markets.
[21001014] |ITT Financial is a subsidiary of ITT Corp.
[21001015] |Arco Chemical Co. -- $100 million of 9.35% debentures due Nov. 1, 2019, priced at 98.518 to yield 9.50%.
[21001016] |Rated single-A-2 by Moody's and single-A by S&P, the issue will be sold through underwriters led by Salomon Brothers Inc.

[21001017] |Trinity River Authority, Texas -- $134.8 million of regional wastewater system improvement revenue bonds, Series 1989, due 1992-2000, 2009 and 2016, through a Shearson Lehman Hutton Inc. group.
[21001018] |The bonds, insured and rated triple-a by Moody's and S&P, were priced to yield from 6.30% in 1992 to 7.25% in 2016.
[21001019] |There are $46,245,000 of 7% term bonds due 2009, priced at 97 7/8 to yield 7.20%, and $64.9 million of 7.1% term bonds due 2016, priced at 98 1/4 to yield 7.25%.
[21001020] |Serial bonds, which all carry 7% coupons, are priced to yield from 6.30% in 1992 to 7% in 2000.

[21001021] |Beverly Hills, Calif. -- $116,385,000 of refunding certificates of participation (civic center improvements project), due 1990-2004, 2007, 2016 and 2019, tentatively priced by a Goldman, Sachs & Co. group to yield from 6% in 1990 to 7.19% in 2016.
[21001022] |Serial certificates yield to 7.10% in 2004.
[21001023] |They are all priced at par.
[21001024] |There are $12,915,000 of 7% term certificates due 2007, priced to yield 7.15%.
[21001025] |The $58.9 million of 7% certificates due 2016 carry the issue's high yield, priced at 97 3/4 to yield 7.19%.
[21001026] |There are also $29 million of 6 3/4% certificates due 2019, priced to yield 7.10%.
[21001027] |The bonds are rated single-A-1 by Moody's and double-A-minus by S&P, according to the lead underwriter.

[21001028] |Michigan -- $80 million of first general obligation bonds (Series 1989 environmental protection program and recreation program), tentatively priced by a Shearson Lehman Hutton group to yield from 6% for current interest bonds due 1990 to 7.25% for convertible capital appreciation bonds.
[21001029] |Environmental protection program current interest bonds are due 1995-1999, 2005 and 2009.
[21001030] |They are tentatively priced to yield from 6.45% in 1995 to 7.10% in 2009.
[21001031] |The standard capital appreciation bonds in the issue, due 1998-2011, yield to maturity from 6.70% in 1998 to 7.10% in 2009-2011.
[21001032] |The convertible capital appreciation bonds all yield 7.25% to their respective conversion dates, when they become 7 1/4% current interest-bearing bonds until maturity.
[21001033] |Convertible capital appreciation bonds with a final stated maturity of Nov. 15, 2014, convert Nov. 15, 1999.
[21001034] |Convertible capital appreciation bonds with a final stated maturity of Nov. 15, 2019, convert Nov. 15, 2004.
[21001035] |Recreation program current interest bonds are due 1990-1995, and are priced to yield from 6% in 1990 to 6.45% in 1995.
[21001036] |All of the bonds are rated single-A-1 by Moody's and double-A by S&P.

[21001037] |Federal National Mortgage Association -- $300 million of Remic securities in 10 classes through Goldman Sachs.
[21001038] |The issue is backed by Fannie Mae 9% securitiess.
[21001039] |The offering is Fannie Mae's Series 1989-88.

[21001040] |Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. (Japan) -- $300 million of 8 3/4% bonds due Nov. 17, 1999, priced at 101 3/8 to yield 8.85% less full fees annually, via Daiwa Europe Ltd.
[21001041] |Guarantee by Industrial Bank of Japan.
[21001042] |Fees 2.

[21001043] |European Investment Bank (agency) -- $150 million of 8 1/2% bonds due Nov. 22, 1999, priced at 99.75 to yield 8.54% at reoffered price, via lead manager JP Morgan Securities Ltd.

[21001044] |Nippon Meat Packers Inc. (Japan) -- $200 million of bonds due Nov. 9, 1993, with equity-purchase warrants, indicating a 3 7/8% coupon at par, via Yamaichi International Europe.
[21001045] |Each $5,000 bond carries a warrant exercisable Nov. 24, 1989, through Oct. 29, 1993, to buy company shares at an expected premium of 2 1/2% to the closing share price when terms are fixed Oct. 31.

[21001046] |GMAC Canada Ltd. (U.S. parent) -- 150 million Canadian dollars of floating-rate notes due November 1996, via Banque Paribas Capital Markets Ltd.
[21001047] |Coupon, paid monthly, is one-month Canadian bankers acceptance rate.
[21001048] |Guarantee by General Motors Acceptance Corp.
[21001049] |Call at par after two years and thereafter at par every six months.

[21001050] |Swedish Export Credit Corp. -- #100 million of 12% bonds due June 15, 1994, priced at 101 5/8 to yield 12.39% annually less full fees, via Samuel Montagu & Co.
[21001051] |Fees 1 7/8.

[21001052] |Skopbank (Finland) -- 10 billion yen of 5 3/4% bonds due Nov. 20, 1992, priced at 101 3/8 to yield 5 3/4% less full fees, via IBJ International.
[21001053] |Fees 1 3/8.

[21001054] |Hokkaido Takushoku Bank (Japan) -- 300 million Swiss francs of notes and bonds due March 31, 1994, with fixed 0.375% coupon at par via Swiss Bank Corp.
[21001055] |Put option March 31, 1992, at 107 3/4 to yield a fixed 3.52%.
[21001056] |The issue is in two parts: 200 million Swiss francs of privately placed notes, 100 million Swiss francs of publicly listed bonds.
[21001057] |Indentical conditions for the two parts.
[21001058] |Other terms to be fixed Nov. 1.

[21001059] |Kingdom of Morocco -- $208 million (redemption amount) of zero-coupon government trust certificates, with maturities stretching from May 15, 1990, to Nov. 15, 1999, priced at yields ranging from 8.23% to 8.43%.
[21001060] |All the issues were priced at a spread of 37 basis points above the Treasury strips with similar maturities.
[21001061] |Proceeds from the offering are about $160.4 million.
[21001062] |Rated triple-A by Moody's and S&P, the issue will be sold through underwriters led by BT Securities, a subsidiary of Bankers Trust New York Corp.

[21002001] |At a time when Jon Levy should be planning the biggest spring season in his dress company's 17 years, his work day is studded with intense moments of concern about one of his biggest customers, Campeau Corp.

[21002002] |"The dress business has always been a gamble, but it's never been like this," says Mr. Levy, president of St. Gillian Group Ltd., which has become a hot name thanks to a campaign of sexy TV commercials.

[21002003] |Every day, Mr. Levy checks orders from Campeau department store chains, trying to guess if he will be paid.
[21002004] |"I'm now monitoring every major account."

[21002005] |Campeau, owner of such retailers as Bloomingdale's, Bon Marche, and Jordan Marsh, sidestepped financial collapse last month after an emergency $250 million loan from Olympia & York Developments Ltd., a Canadian developer and a major shareholder in Campeau.
[21002006] |The need for the loan surprised many analysts and bond holders who had been told at the company's annual meeting in July that there weren't any major problems ahead.

[21002007] |The risk of doing business with Campeau's Federated and Allied department store chains is about to increase greatly, not only for Mr. Levy but for hundreds of other small apparel makers, button suppliers, trucking firms and fabric houses.

[21002008] |Next week, the country's top designers and manufacturers will begin showing fashions for spring 1990, the second most important selling season of the year.
[21002009] |And as the applause dies down in showrooms along Seventh Avenue and Broadway, stylishly clad Campeau buyers will begin writing orders.

[21002010] |Orders from Campeau retailers used to be cause for celebration.
[21002011] |This is no longer true because of Campeau's massive debt load.

[21002012] |"It's all anybody wants to talk about," says Richard Posner, executive vice president for Credit Exchange Inc., a leading credit service.
[21002013] |"People wonder what's going to happen next."

[21002014] |Many manufacturers are worried about being paid for merchandise already shipped to Campeau stores.
[21002015] |But those dollars at risk pale in comparison to the investment required to make and ship spring goods to Campeau stores.

[21002016] |"The few million dollars I could lose today is nothing against what I could lose on the spring line," says Mr. Levy, who estimates that Campeau stores will sell $25 million worth of his clothes this year.
[21002017] |"I'm buying fabric right now for clothes which I may not be paid for until April or May.
[21002018] |What happens to me if Campeau collapses between now and then?"

[21002019] |Some credit concerns, such as Bernard Sands Credit Consultants Inc., have told clients not to ship anything to Federated or Allied stores on credit.
[21002020] |"This is especially true for spring merchandise," says Jim Rindos, credit manager at Bernard Sands.
[21002021] |"Campeau has too much debt."

[21002022] |Other credit houses, such as Credit Exchange and Solo Credit Service Corp., are suggesting that their clients study each order before shipping.
[21002023] |"Payments are good right now, but we aren't recommending any long-term lines of credit," says Richard Hastings, a retail credit analyst, referring to credit lines which make inventory purchases automatic.
[21002024] |"The Campeau situation is a little uncertain and very difficult to analyze."

[21002025] |Because of those concerns, some manufacturers say they will ask for letters of credit before shipping spring merchandise.
[21002026] |"We're being paid today, but we're worried about tomorrow and will want" letters of credit, says the sales director at one major dress maker who asked not to be identified.

[21002027] |Howard Bloom, president of the dress firm Chetta B Inc., says: "It's big time chaos today.
[21002028] |I'm going to ship and hope I get paid.
[21002029] |If I need to ask for money up front later, I will."

[21002030] |Carol Sanger, vice president, corporate communications at Campeau, says that all of the Federated and Allied chains are paying their bills in a timely manner.
[21002031] |"They continue to pay their bills and will do so," says Ms. Sanger.
[21002032] |"We're confident we'll be paying our bills for spring merchandise as well."

[21002033] |Typically, manufacturers are paid 10 days after the month in which they ship.
[21002034] |If goods are shipped to Bloomingdale's between Oct. 1 and Oct. 20, manufacturers expect to be paid by Nov. 10.

[21002035] |But manufacturers now buying fabric for spring season goods won't be paid until March, April or even May.
[21002036] |Some in the market question whether Campeau will be in a position to pay bills at that time.

[21002037] |"Everybody is worried about the possibility of cancellations," says Kurt Barnard, publisher of Barnard's Retail Marketing Report.
[21002038] |"The buyers who work for the various Campeau chains may lose their jobs.
[21002039] |The stores they work for may be sold.
[21002040] |What that will mean for manufacturers is anybody's guess."

[21002041] |Campeau's financial situation is complicated by an estimated $1.23 billion in debt due next spring.
[21002042] |This includes a working capital facility for Allied Stores of $350 million that matures March 15, 1990, and an $800 million bridge loan due April 30, 1990.
[21002043] |The company has stated in recently filed financial documents that it anticipates refinancing its March 1990 payments.
[21002044] |In recent months, numerous retailers have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, including Bonwit Teller, B. Altman & Co., and Miller & Rhoads Inc.
[21002045] |Those filings, plus the expected sale of a number of financially healthy chains, such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Marshall Field's and Bloomingdale's, have added to the anxiety.

[21002046] |"Right now, Federated owes us a considerable amount of money," says Morris Marmalstein, president of David Warren Enterprises, a major dress manufacturer.
[21002047] |"We expect they will be current with their debts by the end of the week, but we are considering asking them for letters of credit before we take more orders."

[21002048] |Mr. Marmalstein adds that his company is now holding some goods in anticipation of being paid in full.
[21002049] |"It's become a day-by-day business," he says.
[21002050] |"Business has never been this tough before.
[21002051] |Not only does your product have to be excellent, but you also have to be able to collect."

[21002052] |Other manufacturers are equally cautious.
[21002053] |Bud Konheim, president of Nicole Miller Inc., says his company is now shipping only to the flagship stores of the Federated and Allied chains.
[21002054] |This limits his financial exposure, he says.

[21002055] |"The branches are just warmed over, empty halls," says Mr. Konheim.
[21002056] |"Why should I be part of that problem?
[21002057] |I've got limited production, and I can't give it to underperformers."

[21002058] |Campeau's Ms. Sanger disputes Mr. Konheim's comments.
[21002059] |"Many of the branches are very lucrative," she says.
[21002060] |"That's just nonsense."

[21002061] |As for Mr. Levy at St. Gillian, he says he will maintain his credit lines with the various Campeau stores unless they miss a payment.
[21002062] |"If they slip for 10 cents for 10 minutes, I'll stop," he says.

[21003001] |Bethlehem Steel Corp., hammered by higher costs and lower shipments to key automotive and service-center customers, posted a 54% drop in third-quarter profit.

[21003002] |Separately, two more of the nation's top steelmakers -- Armco Inc. and National Intergroup Inc. -- reported lower operating earnings in their steel businesses, marking what is generally believed to be the end of a two-year boom in the industry.

[21003003] |Wall Street analysts expect the disappointing trend to continue into the fourth quarter and through at least the first two quarters of 1990, when the industry will increasingly see the effect of price erosion in major product lines, such as rolled sheet used for cars, appliances and construction.

[21003004] |"It doesn't bode well for coming quarters," said John Jacobson, who follows the steel industry for AUS Consultants.
[21003005] |In fact, he thinks several steelmakers will report actual losses through the third quarter of 1990.

[21003006] |Bethlehem, the nation's second largest steelmaker, earned $46.9 million, or 54 cents a share.
[21003007] |The figures include $15 million in costs related to a blast furnace outage and $8 million in losses from unauthorized work outages at the company's coal operations.
[21003008] |In the year-ago period, Bethlehem earned $101.4 million, or $1.27 a share, including a $3.8 million gain from early retirement of debt.

[21003009] |Third-quarter sales dropped 11% to $1.27 billion from $1.43 billion a year ago.

[21003010] |In composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Bethlehem shares rose 50 cents to $17.375.

[21003011] |Of all the major steelmakers, Bethlehem would seem to be the most vulnerable to a slowdown.
[21003012] |It hasn't diversified beyond steel, nor has it linked up with a joint venture partner to share costs and risks.

[21003013] |However, in spite of the difficult industrywide environment of high cost and low volume, Bethlehem "had pretty good earnings numbers," said Michelle Galanter Applebaum, an analyst with Salomon Brothers Inc.
[21003014] |Ms. Applebaum had estimated third-quarter earnings of 55 cents a share, but said the losses for the unusual items were larger than expected.

[21003015] |Still, Bethlehem's core basic steel operations experienced a steep drop in operating profit to $58.6 million from $186.4 million a year ago, when the industry enjoyed strong demand and pricing.
[21003016] |The company said its shipments declined as a result of a reduction in inventories by service centers, a lackluster automotive market and increasing competitive pressures in the construction market.

[21003017] |At the same time, production costs, compared with a year ago, were boosted by higher raw material and employment costs, which resulted from the company's new labor pact effective June 1.

[21003018] |"We anticipate that steel market conditions will exhibit a further moderate decline in the fourth quarter as the automotive sector remains weak and customers continue to adjust inventories," said Bethlehem Chairman Walter F. Williams.
[21003019] |He noted, however, that the company's order entry has increased from the low levels of the early summer, following the end of labor negotiations.

[21003020] |Armco, hampered by lower volume in its specialty steel business, said third-quarter net income dropped 8% to $33 million, or 35 cents a share, from $36 million, or 39 cents a share in the year-ago quarter.
[21003021] |Sales dropped to $441.1 million from $820.4 million, because the company no longer consolidates its Eastern Steel division, which is now a joint venture with Kawasaki Steel Corp.

[21003022] |Along with reduced volume, analysts said the nation's fifth largest steelmaker was hurt by holding higher-cost inventory when raw material costs of such key products as nickel dropped.
[21003023] |Operating profit dropped 46% in its specialty flat-rolled steel segment.
[21003024] |Moreover, the company said higher sales and shipments to service centers from its Armco Steel Co. joint venture failed to offset weakness in the automotive market, higher production costs and a poorer product mix.

[21003025] |Armco shares closed unchanged at $10.625 in composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

[21003026] |National Intergroup, which owns 50% of the nation's sixth largest steelmaker -- National Steel Corp. -- posted net income for the fiscal second-quarter of $8.6 million, or 33 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $50.3 million.
[21003027] |Sales increased in the quarter ended Sept. 30 to $747.8 million from $623.5 million a year ago.
[21003028] |The latest period includes gains of $9.1 million from early retirement of debt and tax loss carry-forward.
[21003029] |Last year's results were hurt by $41.3 million in restructuring charges.

[21003030] |National Intergroup stock closed at $15, unchanged in composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

[21003031] |The company noted that its Fox-Meyer Drug Co., Ben Franklin Stores Inc. and Permian Corp. operations showed improvements as a result of restructuring moves.
[21003032] |However, its equity in the net income of National Steel declined to $6.3 million from $10.9 million as a result of softer demand and lost orders following prolonged labor talks and a threatened strike.
[21003033] |National Intergroup is negotiating for the sale of its 50% interest in National Steel to concentrate more fully on drug distribution operations.

[21004001] |International Business Machines Corp. said it agreed to let Motorola Inc. participate in a semiconductor research project as part of its effort to bolster the U.S. semiconductor industry.

[21004002] |IBM, which made the announcement at the dedication of a research center here, said it invited many other companies to participate as well, including some from Europe.
[21004003] |Jack Kuehler, IBM's president, said IBM is also considering letting other companies participate in additional semiconductor work but declined to be more specific.

[21004004] |IBM, which said a year ago it was inviting companies to participate in some semiconductor work, has become far more open about its technology as it has tried to rally U.S. industry to head off the Japanese, who now dominate the market for dynamic random access memory chips.

[21004005] |While IBM, Armonk, N.Y., makes the bulk of the DRAMs it uses, it doesn't make the equipment needed to produce those chips.
[21004006] |And IBM worries that the Japanese will take over that equipment market, too, unless U.S. semiconductor companies produce enough memory chips here to keep U.S. equipment makers healthy.
[21004007] |Failure of U.S. equipment makers, IBM fears, would leave it dependent on many of the Japanese companies that compete with it in other parts of the market.

[21004008] |IBM also said it expects to benefit from the expertise that Motorola and other companies can bring to bear on the difficult problems involved in semiconductor manufacturing.
[21004009] |IBM already participates in one industrywide effort to improve semiconductor-manufacturing techniques.

[21004010] |IBM said it expects industrywide efforts to become prevalent because semiconductor manufacturing has become so expensive.
[21004011] |A state-of-the-art plant cost $40 million in the mid-1970s but costs $500 million today because the technology is so complex.
[21004012] |And IBM said it expects the costs to continue climbing.

[21004013] |IBM, which said Motorola is paying just a nominal fee to cover the 21-month agreement, acknowledged some companies had turned down its invitation to join in.
[21004014] |But it said that was mainly because the project may not bear fruit until the mid-1990s.
[21004015] |IBM said it thought more companies would become interested as the project progresses.

[21004016] |The project involving Motorola concerns a technique, called X-ray lithography, that figures to be crucial to future generations of memory chips.

[21004017] |Currently, chips are produced by shining light through a mask to produce an image on the chip, much as a camera produces an image on film.
[21004018] |But details on chips must now be extraordinarily fine, and the wavelengths of even ultraviolet light are long enough so that the images they draw may be too blurry -- much as someone using a wide paintbrush could produce a broad line but would have trouble painting a thin one.
[21004019] |X-rays, by contrast, travel straighter and can be focused more tightly than light.

[21004020] |X-rays have problems, too.
[21004021] |They can make the masks brittle and can pass through material they're not supposed to.
[21004022] |But, assuming those problems can be overcome, they should allow for memory chips that could approach one billion bits of information -- 250 times as much as is contained in the four-megabit chips that are just reaching the market and a million times what was possible in the mid-1970s.

[21005001] |Allied-Signal Aerospace Co. received a $65 million contract to outfit Continental Airlines' 393 planes with the Bendix/King Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System.

[21005002] |The airborne system operates independent of ground-based radar systems, informing pilots of nearby aircraft, Allied-Signal said.
[21005003] |The system also provides course-correction advisories.

[21005004] |Allied-Signal is a unit of Allied-Signal Inc., a manufacturer with interests in aerospace, automotive products and engineered materials.
[21005005] |Continental Airlines is a unit of Texas Air Corp., Houston.

[21006001] |In a stunning shift in direction, Provigo Inc. said it will sell all its non-food operations to concentrate solely on its retail and wholesale grocery business.
[21006002] |The non-food operations accounted for about 27% of Provigo's 7.38 billion Canadian dollars (US$6.3 billion) in sales in the latest fiscal year.

[21006003] |In a related move, Pierre Lortie, chairman and chief executive, resigned.
[21006004] |Mr. Lortie joined Provigo in 1985 and spearheaded the company's drive to grow outside its traditional food business.
[21006005] |He couldn't be reached for comment.

[21006006] |Bertin Nadeau, newly appointed chairman and interim chief executive of Provigo, wouldn't say if Mr. Lortie was asked to leave.
[21006007] |"Mr. Lortie felt less pertinent," Mr. Nadeau said, given the decision to dump Provigo's non-food operations.
[21006008] |"At this stage it was felt I was perhaps more pertinent as chief executive."
[21006009] |Mr. Nadeau also is chairman and chief executive of Unigesco Inc., Provigo's controlling shareholder.

[21006010] |At a news conference, Mr. Nadeau said the sale of the three non-food businesses, which account for nearly half the company's C$900 million in assets, should be completed in a "matter of months."
[21006011] |The three units are a nationwide pharmaceutical and health-products distributor, a small sporting-goods chain, and a combination catalog showroom and toy-store chain.

[21006012] |Investors and analysts applauded the news.
[21006013] |Provigo was the most active industrial stock on the Montreal Exchange, where it closed at C$9.75 (US$8.32), up 75 Canadian cents.

[21006014] |"I think it's a pretty positive development," said Ross Cowan, a financial analyst with Levesque Beaubien Geoffrion Inc., of the decision to concentrate on groceries.
[21006015] |Mr. Lortie's departure, while sudden, was seen as inevitable in light of the shift in strategy.
[21006016] |"The non-food operations were largely Mr. Lortie's creation {and} his strategy didn't work," said Steven Holt, a financial analyst with Midland Doherty Ltd.

[21006017] |Provigo's profit record over the past two years tarnished the company's and Mr. Lortie's reputations.
[21006018] |For the six months ended Aug. 12, Provigo posted net income of C$6.5 million, or eight Canadian cents a share, compared with C$18.1 million, or 21 Canadian cents a share, a year earlier.
[21006019] |Sales were C$4.2 billion compared with C$3.7 billion.
[21006020] |Last month, Canadian Bond Rating Service downgraded Provigo's commercial paper and debentures because of its lackluster performance.

[21006021] |Analysts are skeptical Provigo will be able to sell the non-food businesses as a group for at least book value, and are expecting write-downs.
[21006022] |Mr. Nadeau said he couldn't yet say if the sale prices would match book values.
[21006023] |He said all three non-food operations are profitable.

[21006024] |Mr. Nadeau said discussions are under way with potential purchasers of each of the units.
[21006025] |He declined to confirm or deny reports that Provigo executive Henri Roy is trying to put together a management buy-out of the catalogue showroom unit.
[21006026] |Mr. Roy couldn't be reached.

[21006027] |Yvon Bussieres was named senior executive vice president and chief operating officer of Provigo, a new position.
[21006028] |Mr. Bussieres was president and chief operating officer of Provigo's Quebec retail and wholesale grocery unit.
[21006029] |Mr. Nadeau said he intends to remain Provigo's chief executive only until the non-food businesses are sold, after a which a new chief executive will be named.

[21007001] |Comments by Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan lent some support to the dollar, but the U.S. unit ended yesterday lower against most major currencies.

[21007002] |Foreign-exchange dealers noted that the impact of the chairman's remarks was slight and warned that the currency remains sensitive to developments on Wall Street.

[21007003] |Traders said that Mr. Greenspan, whose statements are ordinarily cautious, was especially careful to avoid any jarring proclamations, with fears about equities still unnerving financial markets.

[21007004] |Testifying before a panel of the House Banking Committee, Mr. Greenspan said the short-term value of the dollar on foreign-exchange markets isn't the primary policy focus of the central bank.

[21007005] |"Our essential focus is on domestic policy," Mr. Greenspan said, referring to the goals of price stability and a stable economy.

[21007006] |In perhaps his most telling remark, Mr. Greenspan termed the current U.S. inflation rate of around 4.5% as "much too high to be ignored."

[21007007] |He added, however, that inflation could be brought down "close to zero" without throwing the economy into a recession.

[21007008] |Analysts viewed the chairman's comments as an indication that the central bank is disinclined to ease monetary policy further in the near future.

[21007009] |The dollar climbed immediately higher on news of Mr. Greenspan's testimony, settling lower in later trade as dealers squared positions ahead of today's preliminary report on third-quarter U.S. gross national product.

[21007010] |In late New York trading yesterday, the dollar was quoted at 1.8353 marks, down from 1.8355 marks Tuesday, and at 141.52 yen, up from 141.45 yen late Tuesday.
[21007011] |Sterling was quoted at $1.6145, up from $1.6055 late Tuesday.

[21007012] |In Tokyo Thursday, the U.S. currency opened for trading at 141.60 yen, up from Wednesday's Tokyo close of 141.55 yen.

[21007013] |Many traders forecast a continuation of the market's recent bearish trend and predict the U.S. currency will remain stuck in its relatively narrow ranges in the near term and then shift lower.

[21007014] |But according to Doug Madison, a corporate trader with Bank of America in Los Angeles, a large number of short positions must first be corrected, spurring a temporary upswing, before the unit can turn lower.

[21007015] |He predicts a downward move in dollar-mark trade and a less dramatic slip in dollar-yen, noting that there continues to be a large pool of Japanese investor interest in U.S. securities, which could provide a solid base for the dollar at around 140 yen.

[21007016] |Market participants hope today's GNP report will offer more substantial evidence on U.S. economic growth, although analysts are quick to point out that the figures may overstate the economy's vigor.

[21007017] |"The `r' word is looming again," says one dealer, referring to persistent concern among some market analysts that the U.S. economy is heading toward a major slowdown if not a recession.

[21007018] |Some dealers note that while the third-quarter figures may appear relatively bullish -- the market consensus calls for a 2.5% annual growth rate, unchanged from the second-quarter rate -- it would take a significantly stronger figure to alter market perceptions that the economy is softening.

[21007019] |Some analysts reckon that the next quarter's figures will present a more accurate picture of the U.S. economy, showing a marked slowdown in a number of sectors, including housing starts and equities.

[21007020] |On the Commodity Exchange in New York, gold for current delivery settled at $369.10 an ounce, down $1.10.
[21007021] |Estimated volume was a light 1.7 million ounces.

[21007022] |In early trading in Hong Kong Thursday, gold was quoted at $368.24 an ounce.

[21008001] |Lawrence Insurance Group Inc. said it acquired United Republic Reinsurance Co., a Houston property and casualty reinsurance company, from United Savings Association of Texas for $28 million.

[21008002] |Lawrence Insurance also sold 3.2 million of its shares for $7.125 each to its parent, Lawrence Group Inc.
[21008003] |Lawrence Insurance, based in Albany, N.Y., plans to use the $22.5 million in proceeds to help finance the acquisition of United Republic.

[21008004] |By acquiring the shares, Lawrence Group increased its stake in Lawrence Insurance to 93.2% from 91.2%.
[21008005] |Lawrence Insurance underwrites mostly primary insurance, a company spokesman said.
[21008006] |A reinsurance company effectively insures insurance companies that wish to spread the risk of a particular policy.

[21008007] |Lawrence Group also owns Lawrence Agency Corp., Schenectady, N.Y., an insurance agency and brokerage.

[21009001] |Levi Strauss Associates Inc., the closely held owner of Levi Strauss & Co., said its fiscal third-quarter earnings jumped to $128.6 million from $31.3 million a year earlier, aided by a $69.8 million gain from the sale of stock in a Japanese subsidiary.

[21009002] |The apparel holding company had sales in the quarter ended Aug. 27 of $1 billion, up 12% from $908.8 million a year ago.

[21009003] |The company said its quarterly results are now being publicly filed as the result of the formation earlier this year of employee stock investment plans.

[21010001] |Wall Street would like UAL Corp.'s board to change its mind about keeping the company independent.
[21010002] |But what happens next in the continuing takeover drama may depend more on the company's two most powerful and fractious unions: the pilots and machinists.

[21010003] |Some people familiar with the situation believe that the collapse of the previous $6.79 billion buy-out, if anything, may have strengthened the hands of these two labor groups.
[21010004] |As a result, both may now have virtual veto power over any UAL transaction.

[21010005] |One reason: banks -- likely to react to any new UAL deal with even more caution than the first time around -- probably will insist on labor harmony before they agree to put up cash for any new bid or even a less-ambitious recapitalization plan.

[21010006] |"United pilots have shown on a number of occasions they are willing and able to strike," said an executive at Fuji Bank, one of UAL's large lenders.
[21010007] |"If you have both {labor} groups on strike, you've got no revenue and that's a very scary thing for a bank to be looking at."

[21010008] |Just this past week, a leading Japanese bank asked for a meeting with the machinists' union leaders to determine where the union would stand if another bid or recapitalization became possible.

[21010009] |Another reason: Emboldened by their success in helping to scuttle the previous transaction, the machinists are likely to be more aggressive if a second buy-out attempt occurs.

[21010010] |The two unions already had significant leverage simply because their employer has yet to settle with either on new contracts.
[21010011] |That gives them both the threat of a strike and the ability to resist any wage concessions that may be necessary to make a transaction work.

[21010012] |Thus, even investors who are pushing for the board to do a recapitalization that would pay shareholders a special dividend and possibly grant employees an ownership stake acknowledge that the unions are key.
[21010013] |"There's less likelihood of creating and completing a transaction without the unions' cooperation and wage concessions," said Richard Nye, of Baker, Nye Investments, a New York takeover stock-trader.
[21010014] |Mr. Nye thinks the UAL board should be ousted if it doesn't move soon to increase shareholder value.

[21010015] |Both the pilots and machinists have made it clear that they intend to block any transaction they don't like.
[21010016] |"The pilots will be involved in any transaction that takes place around here," pilot union chairman Frederick C. Dubinsky declared yesterday.
[21010017] |But whether the pilots can team up with their longtime adversaries, the machinists, is another question.

[21010018] |The pilots' Mr. Dubinsky says his union would like majority ownership for employees.
[21010019] |At the very least, the pilots want some form of control over the airline, perhaps through super-majority voting rights.

[21010020] |On the other hand, the machinists have always opposed majority ownership in principle, saying they don't think employees should be owners.

[21010021] |Still, in recent days, machinists' union leaders have shown some new flexibility.
[21010022] |"We may be able to reach a tradeoff where we can accommodate {the pilot union's} concerns and ours," said Brian M. Freeman, the machinists' financial adviser.

[21010023] |Mr. Freeman said machinists' union advisers plan to meet this week to try to draw up a blueprint for some form of recapitalization that could include a special dividend for shareholders, an employee stake and, perhaps, an equity investment by a friendly investor.

[21010024] |If a compromise can't be reached, the pilots maintain they can do a transaction without the support of the machinists.
[21010025] |But at this point, that may just be wishful thinking.

[21010026] |The machinists lobbied heavily against the original bid from UAL pilots and management for the company.
[21010027] |Their opposition helped scare off some Japanese banks.

[21010028] |The pilots' insistence on majority ownership also may make the idea of a recapitalization difficult to achieve.
[21010029] |"Who wants to be a public shareholder investing in a company controlled by the pilots' union?" asks Candace Browning, an analyst at Wertheim Schroeder & Co.
[21010030] |"Who would the board be working for -- the public shareholders or the pilots?" she adds.

[21010031] |Ms. Browning says she believes a recapitalization involving employee ownership would succeed only if the pilots relent on their demand for control.
[21010032] |She also notes that even if the pilots accept a minority stake now, they still could come back at a later time and try to take control.

[21010033] |Another possibility is for the pilots' to team up with an outside investor who might try to force the ouster of the board through the solicitation of consents.
[21010034] |In that way, the pilots may be able to force the board to approve a recapitalization that gives employees a majority stake, or to consider the labor-management group's latest proposal.

[21010035] |The group didn't make a formal offer, but instead told UAL's advisers before the most-recent board meeting that it was working on a bid valued at between $225 and $240 a share.
[21010036] |But again, they may need the help of the machinists.

[21010037] |"I think the dynamics of this situation are that something's got to happen," said one official familiar with the situation.
[21010038] |The board and UAL's management, he says, "can't go back" to business as usual.
[21010039] |"The pilots won't let them.

[21011001] |Delta Air Lines earnings soared 33% to a record in the fiscal first quarter, bucking the industry trend toward declining profits.

[21011002] |The Atlanta-based airline, the third largest in the U.S., attributed the increase to higher passenger traffic, new international routes and reduced service by rival Eastern Airlines, which is in bankruptcy proceedings in the wake of a strike that began last spring.

[21011003] |For the quarter ended Sept. 30, Delta posted net income of $133.1 million, or $2.53 a share, up from $100 million, or $2.03 a share, a year earlier.

[21011004] |Revenue rose 15% to $2.17 billion from $1.89 billion.
[21011005] |During the quarter, Delta issued 2.5 million shares of common stock to Swissair, and repurchased 1.1 million shares for use in a company employee stock ownership plan.

[21011006] |"The key to Delta's record earnings continued to be excellent passenger revenue growth," said Thomas Roeck, chief financial officer.
[21011007] |Passenger traffic jumped 14% in the quarter, while profit per passenger grew 2%.

[21011008] |Delta has benefited more than other carriers from the weakness of Eastern Airlines, which shares the Atlanta hub.
[21011009] |Although Eastern is back to about 80% of its pre-strike schedule now, the Texas Air Corp. subsidiary was only beginning to get back on its feet during the quarter.

[21011010] |Separately, America West Airlines, Phoenix, Ariz., reported third-quarter profit jumped 45% to $5.8 million, or 28 cents a share, from $4 million, or 24 cents a share, a year earlier.
[21011011] |The latest results include a $2.6 million one-time payment from a "foreign entity."
[21011012] |America West wouldn't identify the entity, but said the payment was for the foreign company's use of certain tax benefits in connection with America West plane purchases.
[21011013] |Year-earlier results included an extraordinary gain of $1.6 million from a buy-back of convertible subordinated debentures.

[21011014] |Revenue rose 21% to $243.4 million from $201.2 million.
[21011015] |For the nine months, America West posted earnings of $18.9 million, or 97 cents a share, compared with a loss of $9.7 million, or 74 cents a share, a year earlier.
[21011016] |Revenue rose 27% to $715.1 million from $563.8 million.

[21012001] |PAPERS:
[21012002] |Thomson Corp.'s Globe & Mail newspaper in November will begin transmitting an experimental edition to selected subscribers' facsimile machines.
[21012003] |The four-page news summary will be aimed at readers outside Canada or in Canadian locations where the national daily isn't available on the day of publication.
[21012004] |In the U.S., the Hartford Courant has a facsimile edition and some other newspapers are considering the idea.

[21012005] |WHO'S NEWS:
[21012006] |Michael T. Carr, advertising director of Playboy magazine, was named publisher of National Lampoon and Heavy Metal magazines, succeeding George Agoglia.
[21012007] |It was the first management change since film-makers Daniel Grodnik and Tim Matheson took control of National Lampoon Inc. in March.
[21012008] |They are looking for a new editor for National Lampoon and are trying to sell Heavy Metal.

[21013001] |Columbia Savings & Loan Association, reeling from thrift-accounting changes mandated by Congress and the recent collapse of the junk-bond market, announced a loss for the third quarter of $226.3 million, or $11.57 a share.

[21013002] |For the quarter a year ago, Columbia reported earnings of $16.3 million, or 37 cents a share.
[21013003] |Total assets increased to $12.7 billion in the latest quarter from $12.4 billion a year earlier.

[21013004] |The loss stems from $357.5 million of write-downs on Columbia's $4.4 billion high-yield investment securities portfolio, which includes about $3.7 billion of junk bonds, $400 million of preferred stock, and Treasury securities.

[21013005] |Columbia owes its spectacular growth in recent years to its junk-bond portfolio, the largest of any U.S. thrift.
[21013006] |Much of Columbia's junk-bond trading has been done through the high-yield department of its Beverly Hills neighbor, Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.

[21013007] |For the nine months, losses totaled $212 million, or $10.83 a share, compared with net income of $48.7 million, or $1.11 a share, a year earlier.

[21013008] |The results include a $130.2 million write-down of the securities in the high-yield portfolio to the lower of their cost or market value.

[21013009] |Columbia also added $227.3 million to reserves for losses on the portfolio, increasing general reserves to $300 million, or about 6.7% of the total portfolio, as of Sept. 30.
[21013010] |On June 30, loss reserves stood at $108.3 million.
[21013011] |Thrift officials said the $300 million reserve will be adjusted quarterly and will reflect the rate of dispositions and market conditions.

[21013012] |The adjustments result from the recently passed thrift-industry bailout legislation, which requires thrifts to divest all high-yield bond investments by 1994.
[21013013] |Previously, Columbia didn't have to adjust the book value of its junk-bond holdings to reflect declines in market prices, because it held the bonds as long-term investments.
[21013014] |Because Columbia now must sell the bonds within five years, accounting rules require the thrift to value the bonds at the lower of cost or market prices.

[21013015] |For its future strategy, Columbia officials said the thrift may branch out into commercial lending or managing outside investments, as well as beefing up more traditional thrift activities.

[21013016] |The quarterly results also reflected $21.4 million in non-recurring losses from commercial real-estate activities in California.

[21013017] |Thomas Spiegel, Columbia's chairman, said in a statement that the thrift was "disappointed" by the effects of the accounting changes.
[21013018] |But he said Columbia remains "one of the most strongly capitalized thrifts in the industry," based on the economic value of its assets and tangible capital.

[21013019] |Columbia announced the results after the close of the stock market.
[21013020] |Its shares closed at $5.125 each in composite New York Stock Exchange trading, down 37.5 cents.
[21013021] |The price of Columbia shares has been cut nearly in half since August, when they traded at about $10, as investors apparently realized that the thrift would be forced to take a big write-down.
[21013022] |The stock's decline accelerated in the past two weeks, from a price of $8 a share on Oct. 9.

[21013023] |Columbia officials said they don't know how quickly they will dispose of the thrift's junk bonds, because federal regulations, such as those that would allow thrifts to continue holding the bonds in separately capitalized subsidiaries, haven't yet been completed.

[21013024] |Columbia officials also said the thrift shouldn't face problems meeting regulatory capital requirements, despite the large reserves and write-downs and stiffer regulatory requirements that should be in place by year's end.
[21013025] |Its ratio of tangible equity to total assets as of Sept. 30 was 3.6%, and total equity was $457.9 million.

[21013026] |The thrift emphasized that it has a large portfolio of equity securities issued in connection with corporate restructurings and leveraged buy-outs, which has a book value of $90 million.

[21013027] |Although many of the transactions related to those securities haven't been completed, Columbia said the ultimate gain on the sale of those assets will range from $200 million to $300 million.
[21013028] |Columbia also has unrealized gains in its public equity securities portfolio of more than $70 million.

[21013029] |David B. Hilder in New York contributed to this article.

[21014001] |Anheuser-Busch Cos. said it plans to aggressively discount its major beer brands, setting the stage for a potentially bruising price war as the maturing industry's growth continues to slow.

[21014002] |Anheuser, the world's largest brewer and U.S. market leader, has historically been reluctant to engage in price-cutting as a means of boosting sales volume.
[21014003] |With the passing of the heady days of swelling industry sales, however, the once-sporadic and brief forays into discounting are becoming standard competitive weapons in the beer industry.

[21014004] |Over the summer, Anheuser competitors offered more and deeper discounts than industry observers have seen for a long time.
[21014005] |Some experts now predict Anheuser's entry into the fray means near-term earnings trouble for all the industry players.

[21014006] |The St. Louis company said major rivals, Philip Morris Co.'s Miller Brewing unit and Adolph Coors Co. "have been following a policy of continuous and deep discounting for at least the past 18 months" on their premium brands, pricing their product as much as 25 cents a 12-pack below Anheuser's Budweiser label in many markets.
[21014007] |Anheuser said it's discounting policy basically would involve matching such moves by rivals on a market-by-market basis.

[21014008] |Anheuser-Busch announced its plan at the same time it reported third-quarter net income rose a lower-than-anticipated 5.2% to $238.3 million, or 83 cents a share, from $226.5 million, or 78 cents.
[21014009] |Third-period sales were $2.49 billion, up from last year's $2.34 billion.

[21014010] |Anheuser said its new strategy -- started in some markets last month and expected to be applied soon in selected markets nationwide -- will mean lower-than-anticipated earnings for the last half of 1989 and for 1990.
[21014011] |The projection sent Anheuser shares plunging $4.375 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading yesterday.
[21014012] |The stock closed at $38.50 on heavy volume of about 3.5 million shares.
[21014013] |Shares of Coors, the company's sole publicly traded major competitor, fell $1.50 apiece to $19.125 in national over-the-counter trading, apparently on investor concerns over potential fallout from the coming pricing struggle.

[21014014] |Anheuser noted that "beer industry sales volume is 1989 is following the trend that has characterized the last half of the '80s, with sales volume being essentially flat" while consolidation creates fewer, bigger players.

[21014015] |"We cannot permit a further slowing in our volume trend," Anheuser said, adding it will take "appropriate competitive pricing actions to support our long-term market share growth strategy" for the premium brands.
[21014016] |Anheuser said it continues to hold to its earlier-announced goal of a 50% U.S. market share by the mid-1990s.

[21014017] |Beneath the tepid news-release jargon lies a powerful threat from the brewing giant, which last year accounted for about 41% of all U.S. beer sales and is expected to see that grow to 42.5% in the current year.
[21014018] |"Anheuser is the biggest guy in the bar, and he just decided to join in the barroom brawl," said Joseph J. Doyle, an analyst with Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co.
[21014019] |"It's going to get bloody."

[21014020] |Jerry Steinman, publisher of Beer Marketers Insights, a trade newsletter, said Anheuser's announcement means "everybody else in the industry is going to have a difficult time reaching their profit objectives."

[21014021] |Prudential-Bache Securities Inc. analyst George E. Thompson downplayed the importance of the announcement, and called any comparison between the coming beer-industry tiff and the seemingly unending "cola wars," unwarranted.
[21014022] |Mr. Thompson calls discounting "a loser's game for anyone without a dominant market share," and projected that Anheuser's statement of intent could simply be a means of warning competitors to ease up on price-cutting or face a costly and fruitless battle.

[21014023] |Mr. Thompson noted that the disappointing earnings, which fell five cents a share short of his own projections, contributed to the sell-off by an edgy and currently unforgiving investing public.

[21014024] |But Smith Barney's Mr. Doyle, who yesterday trimmed his 1990 Anheuser earnings projection to $2.95 a share from $3.10, called the market's reaction "justified."
[21014025] |While the third-quarter earnings were a "moderate disappointment," he said, "the real bad news is the intensity of price competition" in the premium-beer sector.

[21014026] |According to Mr. Steinman, the newsletter publisher, Anheuser's market share is nearly twice that of its nearest competitor, Miller Brewing, which had a 21.2% stake last year.
[21014027] |It's followed by Stroh Brewery Co., which has agreed to sell its assets to Coors.
[21014028] |Both Coors and Stroh have recently been ceding market share to Miller and Anheuser.

[21015001] |Tokyo stocks closed easier for the second consecutive day, finishing at the intraday low on index-linked investment trust fund selling toward the end of the afternoon session.
[21015002] |Stocks rose in London, but fell again in Frankfurt.

[21015003] |Tokyo's Nikkei index fell 84.15 points to 35442.40.
[21015004] |Trading was active.
[21015005] |Volume on the first section was estimated at 1 billion shares, up from 914 million Tuesday.
[21015006] |The Tokyo stock price index of first section issues was down 8.65 at

[21015007] |In early trading in Tokyo Thursday, the Nikkei index rose 145.45 points to 35587.85.

[21015008] |On Wednesday, the market opened bullishly with high turnover, ignoring the volatility in New York stocks.
[21015009] |But losers were spread in a broad range by the end of the session.
[21015010] |A trader said that the more an issue gained recently, the sharper the loss sustained Wednesday.

[21015011] |A trader at Yamaichi Securities said the market's mood was undercut by the continuing fall of Nippon Telegraph & Telephone shares, which declined to their lowest level since the begining of this year.
[21015012] |NTT lost 30,000 yen to 1,380,000 yen ($9,756).

[21015013] |Some traders noted individual investors dumped NTT shares amid growing expectation for a division of the company as suggested by a recent government-sponsored panel.

[21015014] |Dealers said they also took profits to reduce holdings in their own account at the end of the October transaction period.

[21015015] |Among pharmaceutical shares, Chugai lost 60 yen to 2,290 yen ($16.20), and Mochida fell 150 to 4,290.

[21015016] |Other losing issues included Showa Shell, which fell 40 to 1,520.
[21015017] |Toyota Motor fell 40 to 2,680.

[21015018] |Sekisui House, which gained 150 Tuesday, lost 70 to 2640.
[21015019] |Daiwa House also ended easier, but Misawa Home was firmer.

[21015020] |Pioneer Electronic and Sony, both of which dominated buying earlier this month, continued to fall Wednesday.
[21015021] |Pioneer was down 90 at 5,810, and Sony lost 40 to 8,550, down 10% from its record set Oct. 11.

[21015022] |London share prices closed modestly higher largely on technical factors, although the market was underpinned near the end of the session by Wall Street's firmer trend.

[21015023] |The Financial Times 100-share index finished at 2161.9, up 12.6 points.
[21015024] |The 30-share index ended 12.6 points higher at 1751.9.
[21015025] |Volume was thin at 374.6 million shares traded, down from 405.4 million Tuesday.

[21015026] |Dealers said the market gained some late steam on a flurry of buying by market-makers looking at blue-chip issues and stocks viewed as oversold during the market's recent downtrend.

[21015027] |Outside what essentially amounted to a bookkeeping exercise, dealers said London dealings were largely dulled by the absence of active interest beyond the market-makers.

[21015028] |The late buying was drawn into the London market, dealers added, after Wall Street showed signs of stability following its rocky opening.

[21015029] |Stocks that suffered on the day were those with active U.S. operations, dealers noted.
[21015030] |Among them were B.A.T Industries, which settled 6 pence a share lower at 753 ($12.10).
[21015031] |Hanson, with 15 million shares traded, closed 2.5 lower at 212.5.

[21015032] |Dealers said the shares were hit by fears of a slowdown in the U.S. economy.

[21015033] |Cable & Wireless benefited from a market squeeze, bouncing 13 to 498 in moderately active volume.

[21015034] |Jaguar was boosted 21 to 715 on follow-through buying after Ford Motor's announcement Tuesday that it might be prepared to mount a full bid for the U.K. luxury auto maker.
[21015035] |It was further helped by Ford, which announced after London's close that it had raised its stake to 12% from just under 11% on Tuesday.

[21015036] |Frankfurt prices closed sharply lower in thin dealings, hurt by the roller-coaster session on Wall Street Tuesday and worries about wage demands by the largest West German trade union.
[21015037] |The German stock index tumbled 26.29 to end at

[21015038] |"It was dead, listless, depressing and negative," said one trader at a U.S. bank in Frankfurt.
[21015039] |"There was little turnover and nothing to stimulate the market."

[21015040] |Equities tumbled at the opening as Tuesday's gyrations on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered most of an 80-point loss, fueled fears of another stock market crash, brokers said.

[21015041] |Tough talk from trade union officials at the conference of the powerful IG Metall metals worker union in West Berlin raised the specter of nationwide strikes next spring, they said.
[21015042] |For the 1990 wage negotiations, the IG Metall is demanding a further cut in the German workweek and steep wage increases, which could sharply increase the costs for German industry.

[21015043] |"All the positive figures on the economy are out already, and people are focusing more on the dangers for next year, mostly the wage talks and the {parliamentary} elections," the U.S. trader said.
[21015044] |The market also shrugged off positive factors, such as higher bond prices and a slowdown in monetary growth in September, traders said.

[21015045] |They said they expect the bearish mood to persist a while longer, as trading volume is falling toward the end of the year and the market is becoming more volatile.

[21015046] |In the auto sector, Bayerische Motoren Werke plunged 14.5 marks to 529 marks ($288), Daimler-Benz dropped 10.5 to 700, and Volkswagen slumped 9 to 435.5.

[21015047] |Continental gave up some of its recent gains, dropping 8 to 338, as rumors of an impending takeover attempt for the tiremaker faded, brokers said.

[21015048] |Deutsche Bank plummeted 12 to 645, hurt by the general mood.
[21015049] |Other banks were slightly more resilient, with Dresdner Bank shedding 4.8 to 320, and Commerzbank slipping 2.5 to

[21015050] |Meanwhile, Wall Street's volatility unnerved investors in other markets.
[21015051] |Share prices closed lower in Paris, Zurich, Brussels, Milan and Stockholm, and mixed in Amsterdam.

[21015052] |Among Pacific markets, prices closed lower in Sydney, Seoul, Hong Kong, Manila, Singapore and Wellington.
[21015053] |Trading in Taipei was suspended for a national holiday.

[21015054] |Here are price trends on the world's major stock markets, as calculated by Morgan Stanley Capital International Perspective, Geneva.
[21015055] |To make them directly comparable, each index is based on the close of 1969 equaling 100.
[21015056] |The percentage change is since year-end.

[21016001] |French chemicals group, Orkem S.A., said Wednesday it has made a bid for control of Coates Brothers PLC, a British manufacturer of inks and polyester resins.

[21016002] |State-controlled Orkem already owns 40.6% of Coates.
[21016003] |The remainder is held by the public and by family interests, a spokeswoman for the French group said.

[21016004] |Orkem declined to give details of its offer, saying only that the bid will be submitted for approval by the board of the British company.

[21017001] |The Democratic-controlled House, by a margin of 51 votes, failed to override President Bush's veto of legislation renewing federal support of Medicaid abortions for poor women who are victims of rape and incest.

[21017002] |The 231-191 roll call illustrates the limits of power a resurgent abortion-rights movement still faces.
[21017003] |It continues to gain strength in the chamber but remains far short of the two-thirds majority required to prevail over Mr. Bush.

[21017004] |Democrats voted to override by a 3-1 margin, but Republicans were equally firm in support of the president, who has threatened to make abortion a decisive issue on at least three separate fiscal 1990 spending bills.

[21017005] |Yesterday's vote dealt with the largest of these bills, an estimated $156.7 billion measure funding the departments of Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services.
[21017006] |To gain more leverage, abortion-rights advocates may seek to fold the bill into an omnibus continuing resolution next month.
[21017007] |But the stark numbers yesterday -- when 282 votes were needed -- indicate the president is in a commanding position for at least this year.
[21017008] |"Unless he changes, they lose," said a Democratic leadership aide.

[21017009] |The action came as Congress sent to the president last night a stopgap spending bill to keep the government operating through Nov. 15 and provide $2.85 billion in emergency funds to assist in the recovery from Hurricane Hugo and the California earthquake.
[21017010] |By a lopsided 97-1 margin, the Senate approved the measure after attaching further provisions sought by the influential California delegation and, despite reservations, the House adopted the bill on a 303-107 roll call.

[21017011] |The package is more than $1 billion above the recommendations of Budget Director Richard Darman this week.
[21017012] |But given the political importance of California, the administration was content to use its influence to prevent any Senate amendments adding further new appropriations.
[21017013] |The $2.85 billion measure comes on top of $1.1 billion appropriated after Hugo struck the Carolinas and Caribbean last month, and these totals don't reflect the additional benefit of low-interest disaster loans.

[21017014] |The bill last night includes $500 million to help finance this credit and further raises the obligation ceiling for the Small Business Administration sixfold to $1.8 billion to accommodate the expected loan activity.
[21017015] |In direct cash assistance, $1 billion is provided in federal highway construction funds, and $1.35 billion is divided between general emergency aid and a reserve to be available to the president to meet unanticipated costs from the two disasters.

[21017016] |In the Senate, Majority Whip Alan Cranston used his position to win not only the expanded credit but also more generous treatment than the House had permitted in the distribution of highway funds in the next six months.
[21017017] |The emergency assistance wouldn't be counted against a state's normal allocation of annual highway funds, and the bill circumvents existing restrictions that otherwise would prevent the use of federal aid to repair a toll road, such as the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge damaged in last week's earthquake.

[21017018] |The underlying stopgap bill is the second required by Congress this fall and, since the current fiscal year began Oct. 1, only the Energy and Interior departments are operating on permanent appropriations enacted into law.
[21017019] |The standoff over abortion is certain to contribute to further delays and, apart from the health and education measure vetoed by Mr. Bush, bills funding the District of Columbia and the entire U.S. foreign-aid budget are in jeopardy because of related abortion or family-planning issues.

[21017020] |The vote yesterday was the most partisan in many years, and though the Democratic leadership is ambivalent about how to address the abortion issue, the debate is increasingly measured in party terms.
[21017021] |The 189 Democrats who supported the override yesterday compare with 175 who initially backed the rape-and-incest exemption two weeks ago and 136 last year on a similar vote.

[21017022] |By comparison, Republicans have held closer to the anti-abortion movement.
[21017023] |Only 42 GOP members opposed the president's veto, a marginal increase over the vote two weeks ago and just 12 more than the 30 who supported the rape-and-incest exemption last year.

[21017024] |At a recent White House meeting, Rep. Silvio Conte (R., Mass.), the ranking minority member of the House Appropriations Committee, argued with his friend Mr. Bush against a veto, and though Mr. Conte and Minority Leader Robert Michel of Illinois stood with the president yesterday, they are plainly uncomfortable with his position.

[21017025] |"This isn't a political issue, this is a moral issue," said Rep. Henry Hyde (R., Ill.), the most eloquent spokesman for the anti-abortion movement.
[21017026] |But after years of using the issue for its benefit, the GOP finds its candidates on the defensive.
[21017027] |New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Rep. James Florio pointedly returned from campaigning to vote against the president yesterday in contrast with his opponent, GOP Rep. James Courter, who has ardently supported abortion restrictions in the past but was absent.

[21017028] |In an extraordinary mix of cultures and church-state powers, Rep. Robert Dornan (R., Calif.) lectured his fellow Roman Catholics -- including Mr. Florio -- for having the "chutzpah" to disagree with the hierarchy of their church on abortion.
[21017029] |Rep. Les AuCoin was as blunt on behalf of the abortion-rights movement.
[21017030] |"This may not make George Bush a one-term president," said the Oregon liberal, addressing the Republican side of the House.
[21017031] |"But if you support him over rape victims, this may be your last term."

[21017032] |Separately, the House last night approved a nearly $67 billion compromise spending bill providing the first construction funds for the administration's ambitious space station in fiscal 1990 and incorporating far-reaching provisions affecting the federal mortgage market.
[21017033] |The current ceiling on home loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration would be increased to $124,875, and the bill gives the Department of Housing and Urban Development new authority to facilitate the refinancing of subsidized loans for low-income homeowners.

[21017034] |By a 325-92 margin, the Appropriations Committee leadership beat back an early challenge by House Banking Chairman Henry Gonzalez (D., Texas) to the FHA provision.
[21017035] |And on a closer 250-170 roll call, lawmakers upheld controversial agreements made by a House-Senate conference earmarking community development funds for more than 40 projects backed by often influential members.

[21018001] |Rupert Murdoch acquired a 25% stake in Grupo Zeta S.A., the leading Spanish magazine and newspaper publisher said.

[21018002] |The transaction called for Mr. Murdoch's News International PLC, a unit of Australia-based News Corp., to subscribe to a rights issue by Zeta valued at 6.65 billion pesetas ($57 million).
[21018003] |Also participating in the issue was Servifilm Spain Cinematografica S.A.
[21018004] |The film producer, owned by Madrid-based financier Jacques Hachuel, received a 5% stake in the Barcelona-based publishing group.

[21018005] |The cash injection boosted Zeta's capital more than four-fold, to 8.47 billion pesetas from 1.82 billion pesetas, greatly enhancing the group's ability to make investments, Zeta officials said.
[21018006] |Following its failure last month to win a license for one of Spain's first three private television stations, Zeta is seeking investment opportunities in communications and publishing.

[21018007] |With annual sales of about 30 billion pesetas, Zeta publishes over a dozen magazines, including the popular Tiempo, Interviu and Panorama, and three regional dailies.
[21018008] |Chairman Antonio Asensio will retain a 70% share in Zeta.

[21019001] |The New York Stock Exchange is expected to launch its own program trading vehicle today, just as controversy over this trading strategy heats up.

[21019002] |The Big Board this morning plans to begin trading its Exchange Stock Portfolio "basket" product, the first program-trading vehicle carrying the exchange's seal of approval.
[21019003] |ESPs will allow institutional investors to buy or sell all 500 stocks in Standard & Poor's index in a single trade of a minimum of $5 million.
[21019004] |"Customized" baskets of fewer stocks will also be available.

[21019005] |The Securities and Exchange Commission gave provisional six-month approval to the Big Board basket at a meeting late yesterday.
[21019006] |The SEC at the same time approved a similar but smaller basket product on the Chicago Board Options Exchange, where the minimum will be $1.7 million.
[21019007] |Also approved was a plan to trade stock portfolios by computer after regular hours on the Midwest Stock Exchange.

[21019008] |The basket products are "an evolutionary step" in solving problems in trading big blocks of stock that came to light in the 1987 market crash, said SEC Commissioner Joseph Grundfest.

[21019009] |New SEC Chairman Richard Breeden, overseeing his first public meeting, said there have been concerns that the Big Board's basket could attract investors with a "short-term perspective" who would rapidly turn over the product, thus increasing volatility.

[21019010] |But Richard Ketchum, the SEC's market regulation chief, said he didn't believe "this will spawn dramatic new program-trading strategies that will be destabilizing."

[21019011] |The baskets on the Big Board and CBOE -- which involve the actual S&P stocks, unlike the stock-index contracts currently traded on the Chicago futures markets, and index options on the CBOE -- will begin trading as critics step up their attacks on program trading and its contributions to the stock market's wild price swings.

[21019012] |The Big Board argues that its new product will help rather than hurt the situation by possibly drawing business from more-volatile forms of program trading.

[21019013] |ESPs are also an attempt by the Big Board to head off the exodus of program trading business to overseas markets such as London.
[21019014] |Big Board officials also hope Japanese investors will become interested in the exchange's product.

[21019015] |Already, many of the Big Board's own floor traders are warning that the ESP baskets are risky and not in the best interests of the investing public.
[21019016] |The 400-member Alliance of Floor Brokers said the new product, with the $5 million minimum, will benefit only big institutional investors and could lead to "wild spasms of volatility."

[21019017] |Stockbrokers who cater to individual investors said the Big Board's new product confirms the exchange doesn't want to curtail program trading, which last month accounted for a record 13.8% of the exchange's average daily volume.

[21019018] |"The New York Stock Exchange is losing its cool here," said James Andrews, head of institutional trading at Janney Montgomery Scott Inc. in Philadelphia.
[21019019] |The new stock baskets "are going to make it easier for program trading to be done.
[21019020] |And it's going to be done more frequently as the result of having more access to it at different places."

[21019021] |Both the Big Board's Exchange Stock Portfolio and the Chicago exchange's Market Basket are designed for institutional investors.
[21019022] |The Big Board lists its targets as pension plans, mutual fund managers and index-arbitrage traders.
[21019023] |In index arbitrage, program traders buy and sell stocks and stock-index futures to profit from small price discrepancies between the markets.

[21019024] |At the same time, only four securities firms have signed up with the Big Board to buy and sell ESPs as market makers, an unenthusiastic response.
[21019025] |The market makers so far are CS First Boston Group's First Boston Corp. unit, Morgan Stanley & Co., PaineWebber Group Inc. and Salomon Inc.'s Salomon Brothers Inc. unit.

[21019026] |Kidder, Peabody & Co., a General Electric Co. unit that has become the biggest program trader along with Morgan Stanley, isn't a market maker, although the Big Board hopes that will change.
[21019027] |Similarly, the Big Board hopes to entice Merrill Lynch & Co.
[21019028] |Neither has plans to be a market maker for now.

[21019029] |Traders said major securities firms are reluctant to become market makers because they fear the baskets may attract only limited trading.
[21019030] |Big Board officials say only 25 contracts a day may trade at first, equivalent to a day's action at a small, regional exchange.

[21019031] |Even though the Big Board says its product represents a post-crash "reform," some traders suggest that if the new basket had been trading during this month's Friday the 13th market plunge, the Dow Jones Industrial Average might have dropped more than the 190 points it did.

[21019032] |With the futures locked into a trading halt Oct. 13 and trading in some individual stock difficult, program traders would have undoubtedly fled to the basket system, the traders say.
[21019033] |"If we had the baskets, we would be leaving in caskets," one trader said.

[21019034] |The SEC's Mr. Breeden said the after-hours trading on the Midwest exchange would help the U.S. win back business that has moved overseas to conduct after-hours trades.

[21020001] |Comprehensive Care Corp., which has agreed to be acquired by closely held First Hospital Corp., reported a $4.7 million loss for its Aug. 31 first quarter and said it is negotiating an extension of senior bank debt past its Oct. 18 due date.

[21020002] |In composite trading yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange, Comprehensive Care shares plunged $3.625 to close at $4.75 on volume of 1,177,000 shares.

[21020003] |The loss in Comprehensive Care's latest quarter is equal to 46 cents a share.
[21020004] |In the year-earlier quarter, Comprehensive Care earned $1.6 million, or 18 cents a share.
[21020005] |Revenue in the latest quarter fell 17% to $44 million from $53.2 million, the company said, reflecting poor utilization of the company's facilities and its behavioral medicine contracts.

[21020006] |Comprehensive Care shareholders have approved acquisition of the developer and operator of Care-Unit chemical dependency and psychiatric programs for about $58 million in cash, notes and stock of First Hospital, Norfolk, Va.
[21020007] |The price was reduced last August from an indicated value of $76 million.

[21020008] |Comprehensive Care said First Hospital had advised it that both bank debt and senior notes would be repaid after the acquisition, although it isn't assured the acquisition will be completed.
[21020009] |If it isn't completed, Comprehensive Care said it would be "required to promptly restructure its debt."

[21020010] |First Hospital advised Comprehensive Care that an agent for the financial institutions providing financing of its acquisition is scheduled to make a final credit determination tomorrow, and that a favorable determination could result in a reorganization at Comprehensive Care "by the end of October."
[21020011] |Failure to win such a determination, however, would lead Comprehensive Care directors to "consider various alternatives," Comprehensive Care said, without elaborating.

[21020012] |Separately, First Hospital reported a 1.6% rise in net income to $6.1 million for its year ended June 30 on a 27% increase in revenue to $110.6 million.
[21020013] |It said, however, that net income for the two-month period ended Aug. 31 plunged to $150,000 from $851,000 in the prior year on a 33% rise in revenue to $21.4 million.

[21021001] |A group including New York investors Douglas A. Kass and Anthony Pedone holds the equivalent of a 12.6% stake in H.H. Robertson Co.'s common shares outstanding, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

[21021002] |Officials of Pittsburgh-based H.H. Robertson, which makes steel roofs, store fronts and building parts, declined comment.
[21021003] |As reported last month, Mr. Kass said he was interested in making an offer to buy H.H. Robertson for $13 a share.

[21021004] |In the SEC filing, the Kass-Pedone group said it intends to acquire additional H.H. Robertson shares "with a view towards a possible change in control of the company."
[21021005] |It has not, however, made a formal proposal.

[21021006] |The group also is engaged in talks with third parties regarding obtaining financing to buy more shares, but no agreements have yet been reached, the filing said.

[21021007] |The group controls 795,900 H.H. Robertson common shares, assuming exercise of an option it acquired from Executive Life Insurance Co. to buy 497,400 shares.
[21021008] |Its stake includes 106,100 shares bought in the open market from Aug. 30 to Oct. 18 for $10.375 to $12.125 a share.

[21021009] |In New York Stock Exchange composite trading yesterday, H.H. Robertson closed at $11.625, up 62.5 cents.

[21022001] |After coming close to a partial settlement a year ago, shareholders who filed civil suits against Ivan F. Boesky and the partnerships he once controlled again are approaching an accord, people familiar with the case said.

[21022002] |Meanwhile, within the next few weeks, the limited partners in Ivan F. Boesky & Co. L.P. are expected to reach a partial settlement with Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. regarding the distribution of the $330 million in partnership assets, said one of the individuals.
[21022003] |Under the terms of the settlement, the limited partners would drop their civil suits against Drexel, now pending in federal court in New York, another individual said.

[21022004] |Attorneys involved in the talks said that the parties were closer to accord than they were a year ago, when reports of an imminent agreement circulated.
[21022005] |One individual said the shareholders' accord was "well worked out."

[21022006] |However, less optimistic attorneys warned that because of the tangle of numerous defendants and plaintiffs with overlapping claims, there is always the possibility that the talks will again fall apart.

[21022007] |A shareholders' accord would provide the first restitution to thousands of individuals and institutions claiming losses as a result of insider trading by Boesky & Co., once the largest arbitrage fund in the U.S.
[21022008] |The plaintiffs are investors who bought and sold securities in which Mr. Boesky and his partnerships were dealing.
[21022009] |Some claim they suffered losses because they sold while he was buying and others because they bought while he was selling.

[21022010] |Stocks involved in the shareholder suits include Union Carbide, RJR Nabisco, American Natural Resources, Boise Cascade Corp., General Foods Corp., Houston Natural Gas and FMC Corp.

[21022011] |There are at least 27 class-action shareholder suits that have been consolidated in federal court in New York under U.S. District Judge Milton Pollack.
[21022012] |Among the defendants are Mr. Boesky; the now-defunct Ivan F. Boesky & Co.; Mr. Boesky's main underwriter, Drexel Burnham; and Cambrian & General Securities PLC, a British investment fund once controlled by Mr. Boesky.

[21022013] |Individuals familiar with the negotiations said the partial settlement being negotiated would remove the Boesky partnership, the British fund and Mr. Boesky as defendants, while Drexel and other defendants would remain.

[21022014] |Charles Davidow, of the Washington, D.C.-based law firm Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, which represents Mr. Boesky in this matter, said only that "discussions are under way.
[21022015] |There are no agreements yet."

[21022016] |It has been three years since Mr. Boesky, now in prison, agreed to pay a $100 million fine to settle the government's charges that he had traded illegally using insider information.
[21022017] |Out of this, the government set up a $50 million fund for plaintiffs who can prove their financial losses.
[21022018] |According to William Orbe, an attorney at Grais & Richards, the escrow agents for the fund, as of Sept. 30 the fund amounted to $60.5 million.

[21022019] |Separately, attorneys for the 42 or so limited partners have had serious discussions that could lead to the distribution of the partnership's assets.
[21022020] |The limited partners include insurance companies, financial institutions and individual investors.

[21022021] |An agreement with Drexel regarding the limited partners' investments is an essential step toward getting their money back.
[21022022] |This is because a Delaware court earlier this year said that Drexel is entitled to get its money back before or at the same time as the limited partners.
[21022023] |Drexel is owed $20 million by the partnership.

[21022024] |An individual familiar with the negotiations said that whatever investments the limited partners do not recoup from the $330 million in partnership assets, they will receive from the $350 million restitution fund available as a result of Drexel's settlement with the government in December 1988.

[21022025] |Drexel agreed to plead guilty to six felony counts and pay $650 million, of which $350 million was set aside for shareholders and other plaintiffs, including the limited partners, who claim they were injured by Drexel.

[21022026] |JAILED AFRICAN-AMERICAN activist wins a battle against the

[21022027] |U.S. District Judge Robert P. Patterson Jr. ordered the FBI to immediately begin processing Herman Benjamin Ferguson's request for documents stemming from the agency's investigation of him during the 1960s.
[21022028] |The FBI had said it would not be able to begin processing the request until June

[21022029] |Mr. Ferguson, who is 68 years old, fled the U.S. in 1970 after exhausting his appeals of a 1968 conviction on conspiracy to murder.
[21022030] |He turned himself in to authorities in New York earlier this year.
[21022031] |He maintains that the information from the FBI will help him get his 1968 conviction vacated and his bail-jumping indictment dismissed.
[21022032] |His attorneys claim he was framed by the FBI and New York police as part of a campaign to destroy the black liberation movement of the 1960s.

[21022033] |Because the federal Freedom of Information Act wasn't law at that time, the FBI wasn't required to turn over information on its investigations when Mr. Ferguson appealed his conviction in the 1960s.
[21022034] |But in federal court in Manhattan, Judge Patterson said the FBI records could show that Mr. Ferguson's arrest was the result of questionable legal practices.

[21022035] |The judge said that if the FBI's proposed schedule was followed in releasing the documents, "a delay of over one year will have occurred and plaintiff will have served approximately two-thirds of his 3 1/2-year minimum sentence by the time he receives the files."

[21022036] |Gabriel W. Gorenstein, the assistant U.S. attorney handling the case for the FBI, said no decision has been made about appealing the judge's ruling.

[21022037] |FEDERAL COURTS URGED to cut costs and reduce delays of civil suits.

[21022038] |The study, conducted by a task force of the Brookings Institution, suggests that Congress should require the courts to develop the plans.
[21022039] |The study was initiated by Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Joseph Biden (D., Del.).

[21022040] |The Washington, D.C., think tank recommends that the courts adopt different "tracks" for different types of civil cases in order to separate the handling of highly complex suits from simpler ones.
[21022041] |Complex cases, such as antitrust suits and many business disputes, would receive intense supervision by federal judges to keep pretrial proceedings moving.
[21022042] |Standard cases would require less judicial attention, and fast-track cases could be resolved quickly.

[21022043] |The study also said each federal court should set strict time limits for the pretrial exchange of documents and evidence, ranging from as much as 100 days for cases in the fast track to as much as 18 months for complex disputes.
[21022044] |And the study said federal courts should set firm trial dates early in the process.

[21022045] |To take advantage of local expertise and custom, the study said, Congress should require each of the 94 federal district courts to adopt its own plan to speed the handling of civil suits and to reduce the high costs in civil cases.

[21022046] |Although some of the study's recommendations resemble those of similar projects, the makeup of the task force was unusually diverse, adding significance to the effort.
[21022047] |It included lawyers from civil rights and consumer groups, plaintiffs' lawyers and defense attorneys, corporate counsel and law professors.

[21023001] |Businessland Inc. said it purchased a major regional computer retailer, Data Systems Computer Centre Inc., Springfield, New Jersey.
[21023002] |Terms weren't disclosed.

[21023003] |The purchase strengthens San Jose, Calif.-based Businessland's links to the large corporations who are among the biggest buyers of computers.
[21023004] |Data Systems has five retail stores in the northeast, but specializes in selling personal computers made by International Business Machines Corp. and Apple Computer Inc. to banks, brokerage firms and other big businesses based in the New York metropolitan area.

[21023005] |John Fitzsimmons, chief executive officer of Data Systems, said the company was profitable and expected sales of nearly $100 million this year.
[21023006] |He said Businessland, which operates stores in 50 U.S. metropolitan areas, planned to absorb his firm's operations.

[21024001] |Eastman Kodak Co. of Rochester, N.Y., said its Lehn & Fink Products subsidiary was restructured to form two operating groups, one for household products such as cleaners and disinfectants and the other for do-it-yourself products such as wood finishes and stains.

[21024002] |The Montvale, N.J., unit said the new operating structure "creates a more focused and responsive organization geared to effectively managing the size and scope of the unit's current business."

[21024003] |The consumer brands unit was absorbed by the photographic, pharmaceutical and chemical concern last year when it acquired Sterling Drug Inc.

[21024004] |In a related matter, Peter Black, president of consumer brand Minwax, was named group vice president for the household products operating group.
[21024005] |Kenneth M. Evans, president of Thompson & Formby brand, was named group vice president of the do-it-yourself operating group.

[21025001] |Sotheby's Holdings Inc., the parent of the auction house Sotheby's, said its net loss for the seasonally slow third quarter narrowed from a year earlier on a leap in operating revenue.

[21025002] |The New York-based company reported a third-quarter net loss of $5.1 million, or 10 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier net loss of $6.2 million, or 12 cents a share.
[21025003] |Operating revenue surged 54% in the latest period to $42.9 million from $27.7 million.

[21025004] |The company said 80% of its auction business is usually conducted in the second and fourth quarters, with the current quarter having begun "extremely well.

[21026001] |West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark crude, seemed tethered again yesterday in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
[21026002] |Widely expected to open 10 to 15 cents a barrel higher on the strength of statistics from the American Petroleum Institute, the December contract managed to start the session only eight cents higher.

[21026003] |In the last hour of the trading day, December contract took a tumble to end the session 10 cents lower at $19.62 a barrel.
[21026004] |And now that the price has fallen below $19.65, which many had said showed considerable resistance, some traders and analysts figure there's little to stop the price from going lower on technical decisions.

[21026005] |With no petroleum-related news or changes in the fundamentals to dictate price moves, "technicians are wanting to sell this stuff," said Eric Bolling of Edge Trading Corp.
[21026006] |"And short-term, the technicians may have their way."

[21026007] |The market quickly discounted the weekly inventory report showing a 6.3 million barrel decrease in U.S. crude oil stocks as the legacy of Hurricane Jerry.
[21026008] |That storm hit the Gulf Coast Oct. 13, closing the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port for a time and preventing tankers from unloading.
[21026009] |Next week's report could very well show an increase in crude inventories.

[21026010] |Dismissing the trade group's numbers left traders plenty of time to worry anew about the latest reports on OPEC production.
[21026011] |An AP-Dow Jones survey of integrated oil companies, independent refiners, and oil industry consultants indicates that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries increased its production to 22.2 million barrels a day in September.
[21026012] |Estimates suggest October's figure may be even higher.

[21026013] |That level of production isn't of much concern as long as demand continues strong, analysts said.
[21026014] |But the first quarter of the year is generally the weakest and OPEC production doesn't seem to be slackening in anticipation of that.
[21026015] |Also, maintaining current demand assumes no significant slowdown in world economies.

[21026016] |To top off the bearish factors affecting yesterday's trading, late October weather, especially in the Northeast U.S., continues to be very moderate, leaving heating oil futures trading lackluster.
[21026017] |"We aren't seeing any cold weather here," Mr. Bolling said from New York.

[21026018] |In other commodity markets yesterday:

[21026019] |GRAINS AND SOYBEANS:
[21026020] |Soybean and corn futures prices moved higher on the strength of buying from commodity pool managers trying to profit from technical price trends, as well as continued export strength.
[21026021] |A leveling off of farmer selling tied to the harvest also removed some of the downward pressure on futures contract prices.
[21026022] |Wheat futures prices fell, however, at least partly in reaction to the rumored selling of futures contracts equal to several million bushels of wheat by commodity speculator Richard Dennis.
[21026023] |Neither Mr. Dennis nor officials of his Chicago trading company, C&D Commodities, could be reached for comment.
[21026024] |As for corn and soybean futures, "a lot of commission house buying this morning and computer-driven buying" supported prices in early trading, said Steven Freed, a futures analyst with Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. in Chicago.
[21026025] |Soybean futures for November delivery gained 5.25 cents a bushel to close at $5.66 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade.
[21026026] |December corn futures added 2.25 cents a bushel to close at $2.4225 a bushel on the Board of Trade.
[21026027] |Announced and anticipated purchases from foreign countries are also supporting futures prices.
[21026028] |"Russian ships are arriving in the gulf and there isn't enough grain in the pipeline," said Katharina Zimmer, a futures analyst with Merrill Lynch & Co. in New York.
[21026029] |The Soviet Union has purchased roughly eight million tons of grain this month, and is expected to take delivery by year end, analysts said.

[21026030] |COTTON:
[21026031] |Futures prices rose modestly, but trading volume wasn't very heavy.
[21026032] |The December contract settled at 73.97 cents a pound, up 0.59 cent, but it rose as high as 74.20 cents.
[21026033] |Several cotton analysts said that the move appeared to be mostly technical.
[21026034] |Traders who had sold contracts earlier, in hopes of buying them back at lower prices, yesterday were buying contracts back at higher prices to limit their losses.
[21026035] |Floor traders also said that the market could have been helped by rumors, which have been circulating for the past two days, about China purchasing cotton.
[21026036] |The rumor, which has been neither confirmed nor denied, has China buying 125,000 to 200,000 bales for near-term delivery.
[21026037] |One floor trader said that if there were Chinese purchases, they should have had a bigger effect on the market.
[21026038] |Another said that if China was a buyer, it would be the earliest that country had made purchases since the 1979-80 crop year, and thus would be a bullish sign.
[21026039] |This trader characterized the recent price action as a contest between the fundamentalists, who see higher prices ahead, and the technicians, who are basically buying cotton toward the bottom of the current trading range, around 71 cents, and selling it when the price climbs more than 74 cents.
[21026040] |This trader said that he thought the market would turn aggressively bullish from a technical standpoint if the December contract was able to exceed 75.75 cents.
[21026041] |He also noted that stocks on Aug. 1, 1990, are currently projected at 3.3 million bales, the smallest end-of-season supply since 1985.

[21026042] |COCOA:
[21026043] |The modest sell-off, which started on Tuesday, continued.
[21026044] |The December contract ended at $999 a metric ton, down $15.
[21026045] |The market is drifting, at least partly, because of a lack of crop information out of Ghana and the Ivory Coast, the two largest African producers.
[21026046] |Harry Schwartz, a soft commodity specialist for Cargill Investors Services in New York, said the only report Ghana has issued about the arrival of cocoa from the interior was for 7,839 metric tons as of Oct. 12.
[21026047] |By this time last year, he noted, arrivals totaling 33,270 tons had been announced.
[21026048] |A similar situation apparently exists in the Ivory Coast with no figures released yet this year, compared with 55,000 tons as of this time a year ago.
[21026049] |He said that if little cocoa actually has arrived at the ports, shipping delays could result.
[21026050] |This is the worry that probably brought steadiness to the market earlier in the week, he said.
[21026051] |There was also some fear that without Ivory Coast cocoa a large French cocoa merchant, Cie. Financiere Sucre et Denrees, might not be able to deliver cocoa against the contracts it had sold earlier for December delivery in London.
[21026052] |However, the French merchant has about 200,000 tons of old crop Ivory Coast cocoa stored in the Netherlands from an agreement it had negotiated with the Ivory Coast last spring.
[21026053] |Cargill thinks that even though the merchant has a contract stating that it won't bring this cocoa to market until after March 1991, there is some evidence the contract has been modified.
[21026054] |This modification, apparently, would permit the French merchant to deliver this cocoa, if necessary, against existing short positions.

[21027001] |Richard D. Sutton, 64 years old, chairman of this bank-holding company, was named acting president and chief executive officer of the company and its First National Bank of Toms River subsidiary.
[21027002] |Joseph W. Robertson, 61, was dismissed from those posts, the company said.
[21027003] |He couldn't be reached and a company spokesman wouldn't comment on the dismissal.
[21027004] |Mr. Robertson was also removed from the board of First National Bank of New Jersey-Salem County, another unit, and the Toms River bank.

[21028001] |American Medical International Inc. said it hasn't received any other offers to acquire the owner and operator of hospitals, and took another step toward completion of its $3 billion acquisition by IMA Holdings Corp.

[21028002] |Earlier this month IMA, an investment group that includes Chicago's Pritzker family and First Boston Corp., submitted a reduced bid for American Medical after it couldn't finance its initial offer.
[21028003] |Under the new offer, IMA will pay $26.50 a share for 63 million shares, or about 86% of the shares outstanding.
[21028004] |IMA also will assume $1.4 billion in debt.

[21028005] |Yesterday, in composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange, AMI common closed at $23.625, up 12.5 cents, on volume of almost 1.8 million.

[21028006] |Earlier, American Medical said it had been approached again by two other possible suitors, whom it wouldn't identify but who had previously submitted bids for the company.
[21028007] |Yesterday, American Medical said that the two other parties told the company that they don't have any current intention of making a takeover bid.

[21028008] |American Medical said its directors have approved what is, in effect, a draft of a solvency opinion on the acquisition, submitted by the Los Angeles-based investment banking and evaluation consulting firm of Houlian Lokey Howard & Zukin Inc.
[21028009] |A final opinion must be approved prior to the acceptance of tendered shares for payment under the offer, which was due to expire at 12:01 a.m. EDT today.

[21028010] |Separately, Moody's Investors Service Inc. downgraded the ratings of American Medical's senior and subordinated debt issues and those of its international affiliate.
[21028011] |The downgrade anticipates completion of the IMA Holdings acquisition today, Moody's said.

[21028012] |The ratings concern said the acquisition should result in pretax losses from operations because of increases in interest expense and charges for depreciation and amortization, but that it expects the losses to be reduced through productivity gains and above average growth of the company's hospitals.
[21028013] |Moody's said the ratings anticipate a successful debt-reduction program and modest improvement in discretionary cash flow because of planned asset sales.

[21028014] |Moody's changes affected the following issues:
[21028015] |American Medical International: Senior notes, sinking-fund debentures, Euromarket notes, Eurobonds, Swiss franc bonds, unsecured loan stock to Ba3 from Baa2; convertible subordinated debentures, notes, and sinking-fund debentures to B2 from Baa3.

[21028016] |American Medical International N.V.: Guaranteed Euroissues to Ba3 from Baa2.

[21028017] |An American Medical spokeswoman said the Moody's downgrading was expected because of the nature of the takeover.

[21029001] |Bay Financial Corp., Boston, which has been reporting big losses and warning of a possible bankruptcy-law filing, said it was sued by a holder.

[21029002] |The real estate investment trust said the "purported class action suit," seeks "damages and other remedies under federal securities law and state law."
[21029003] |Gerald E. Wilson, corporate secretary and legal counsel, said the company wouldn't disclose further details.
[21029004] |He declined to name the shareholder, the plaintiff's lawyer or the court where the lawsuit was filed.

[21029005] |Bay, which has substantial investments in the floundering Massachusetts market, reported a loss of $62 million, or $15.97 a share, for the fiscal year ended June 30.
[21029006] |It has said it might seek bankruptcy-court protection from creditor lawsuits if it can't renegotiate its borrowings.

[21029007] |In New York Stock Exchange composite trading, Bay closed at $2.625, down 25 cents.

[21030001] |Keith A. Tucker was named a director of this insurance and financial services concern.
[21030002] |Mr. Tucker, 44 years old, is president of Trivest Securities Corp. and senior vice president of Trivest Inc., closely held investment companies based in Miami.
[21030003] |His selection increases the size of the board to 12 members.
[21030004] |Torchmark also said that Samuel E. Upchurch Jr., 37, vice president and general counsel, was selected to serve the remainder of the term vacated by John S.P. Samford, who resigned as director.

[21031001] |Philip Morris Cos., New York, adopted a defense measure designed to make a hostile takeover prohibitively expensive.

[21031002] |The giant foods, tobacco and brewing company said it will issue common-share purchase rights to shareholders of record Nov. 8.
[21031003] |Under certain circumstances, the rights would entitle Philip Morris holders to buy shares of either the company or its acquirer for half price.

[21031004] |The board isn't aware of any attempts to take over Philip Morris, the company said.
[21031005] |As of Sept. 30, Philip Morris had 926 million shares outstanding.
[21031006] |In composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Philip Morris shares closed yesterday at $43.50 each, down $1.

[21032001] |Beghin-Say S.A. said that it plans to sell its remaining paper operations by the end of January as part of a drive to refocus on the food sector and lower its debt.

[21032002] |The French unit of Ferruzzi Agricola Finanziaria also disclosed a 40% rise in its consolidated net profit for the first half of 1989, excluding nonrecurring items and after payments to minority interests.

[21032003] |Beghin-Say said the sale will be done in two parts and will raise a total of 2.025 billion francs ($325 million).
[21032004] |This will include the sale of its interest in the joint venture Beghin Corbehem to Feldemuehle AG.
[21032005] |The West German paper company entered the venture in April 1988 by acquiring a 50% stake, also from Beghin-Say.

[21032006] |The other part of the transaction will see Beghin-Say sell its 50% stake in its Kaysersberg paper affiliate to an unspecified unit of the petrochemical group Montedison S.p.A., which is also controlled by Ferruzzi.

[21032007] |And in a separate transaction, Beghin-Say will sell its remaining 25% interest in A.T.B., a holding company for international trading assets, to an unspecified unit of Ferruzzi for 258 million francs.

[21033001] |Esselte AB, the Stockholm office supplies company, as expected, proposed to acquire the 22% it doesn't own of its U.S. unit, Esselte Business Systems Inc.

[21033002] |The price in the proposal is $43.50 for each of the 4.9 million shares the parent doesn't own, or $213.2 million.

[21033003] |In New York Stock Exchange composite trading, Esselte closed yesterday at $43.50 a share, up $1.

[21033004] |A committee of outside directors for the Garden City, N.Y., unit is evaluating the proposal; the parent asked it to respond by Oct. 31.
[21033005] |The unit said it can provide no assurance a transaction will occur.

[21033006] |Esselte AB sold the minority stake five years ago in a $40 million international share offering.
[21033007] |The unit, which is the holding company for Esselte's non-Swedish units, accounted for 58% of sales and 71% of operating profit last year.

[21033008] |Separately, Esselte Business Systems reported third-quarter net income fell 5.9% to $9.5 million, or 46 cents a share, from $10.1 million, or 49 cents a share, in the year-ago period.
[21033009] |Sales rose 2.9% to $329.2 million from $320 million.

[21034001] |House and Senate conferees agreed to continue production of Grumman Corp.'s F-14 and to provide more than $3.8 billion for the Strategic Defense Initiative during the current fiscal year.

[21034002] |Industry officials and congressional aides said that the main points of a compromise defense authorization bill, hammered out during a flurry of private meetings over the past few days, provide a face-saving compromise for both the White House and House Democrats.
[21034003] |Although conferees are still putting the finishing touches on the package, the final agreement could be announced as early as tomorrow.
[21034004] |An announcement is more likely next week, though.

[21034005] |President Bush and other supporters of SDI will be able to take credit for blocking House efforts to significantly cut the program to develop a space-based antimissile system, which already has cost some $17 billion.
[21034006] |Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn (D., Ga.) and other Senate conferees have opposed the House cuts, stalling for almost two months action on a number of big-ticket items in the Pentagon's budget.

[21034007] |The Senate voted to authorize $4.5 billion for SDI spending in the current fiscal year, but the House, reflecting a dramatic erosion of support for the program, earmarked only $3.1 billion.
[21034008] |Despite the widening gap between the two sides, conferees eventually followed the pattern set in previous years by opting to roughly split the difference.
[21034009] |That would hold spending on the program at about the previous year's level.

[21034010] |The decision to keep the embattled F-14's production line running for at least another year is an important victory for the House, and especially for Rep. Les Aspin (D., Wis.).
[21034011] |As the head of the House conferees, Rep. Aspin has been under intense pressure from his colleagues to reject Senate provisions that would have abruptly cut further F-14 production.

[21034012] |The package "provides a temporary, golden parachute for Grumman," according to one congressional aide familiar with the closed-door bargaining.
[21034013] |But as part of the overall agreement, Grumman and its outspoken supporters on Capitol Hill effectively will be precluded from reopening the emotional issue in the debate over next year's budget.

[21034014] |Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and most senators contend that the Navy's F-14 is too expensive in an era of shrinking Pentagon budgets.
[21034015] |But the plane boasts a strong core of support in the House, where members are intent on saving Grumman jobs and are worried about potential shortages of carrier-based aircraft by the late 1990s.

[21034016] |Conferees also agreed to Pentagon requests to earmark a total of nearly $1 billion for work on both mobile MX and Midgetman nuclear missiles, according to congressional aides.

[21034017] |And lawmakers are putting the finishing touches on a compromise that would give the Air Force nearly all of the $2.4 billion it wants for production of Northrop Corp.'s radar-eluding B-2 bombers, which cost $530 million apiece.
[21034018] |The final B-2 agreement is certain to require detailed testing and verification of the bomber's capabilities, but congressional aides said the accord won't include a House-passed provision that would have withheld production funds until Congress approves a cheaper, scaled-down version of the $70 billion fleet of 132 B-2s envisioned by the Pentagon.

[21035001] |Consolidated Freightways Inc. reported a 77% drop in third-quarter net income, citing expected losses in its Emery Worldwide shipping business.

[21035002] |The Menlo Park, Calif., company said net was $7.4 million, or 22 cents a share, down from $32.3 million, or 86 cents a share, a year ago.
[21035003] |Revenue totaled $1.01 billion, a 43% increase from $704.4 million, reflecting the company's acquisition of Emery earlier this year.

[21035004] |Profit also suffered because of "intense" discounting in its long-haul trucking business, the company said.

[21035005] |Analysts had expected Consolidated to post a slim profit, and the company's stock was down only 25 cents to $30.25 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading yesterday.
[21035006] |"They have to continue to tighten their belts," said Craig Kloner, an analyst at Goldman, Sachs & Co.

[21036001] |A round of futures-related program selling near the close sent the stock market lower in otherwise directionless trading.

[21036002] |Nervousness that the market hasn't seen the last of its recent volatility kept trading at a moderate pace, as did anticipation of a report on the economy's third-quarter performance.

[21036003] |The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which plunged more than 80 points in early trading Tuesday and then recovered nearly all of its losses by the close, fell 5.94 to 2653.28 in the latest session.

[21036004] |The average drifted in a trading range of about 30 points throughout the day.
[21036005] |The lower boundary was established just after the opening in a brief round of selling; the upper boundary was set at midday as scattered bargain-hunting pushed prices higher.

[21036006] |Buying interest in Du Pont, which declared a stock split and a dividend boost, and certain other blue-chip issues gave the industrial average a better performance than broader indexes.

[21036007] |Standard & Poor's 500-Stock Index dropped 1.20 to 342.50; the decline was the equivalent of a nine-point setback in the 30-stock average.
[21036008] |The Dow Jones Equity Market Index fell 1.16 to 320.94 and the New York Stock Exchange Composite Index slid 0.53 to 189.52.

[21036009] |But advancing issues topped decliners by 784 to 700 on the Big Board despite the late sell programs, resulting from stock-index arbitrage.
[21036010] |The programs occurred against the backdrop of a late pullback in UAL, which had held at slightly lower levels through most of the session amid optimism that another bidder might surface.

[21036011] |Traders said program activity wasn't in evidence through most of the session, however, and Big Board volume dropped to 155,650,000 shares from about 238 million Tuesday as concerns about the potential for additional sharp swings in the market kept other trading in check.

[21036012] |"People are sort of nervous to do anything in the market now.
[21036013] |Our phones are quiet around here," said Don R. Hays, director of investment strategy at Wheat First Butcher & Singer Inc., Richmond, Va.

[21036014] |The gross national product report, due to be released before today's opening, is expected to show that the economy continued to expand in the third quarter at a moderate pace.
[21036015] |The consensus of economists polled by Dow Jones Capital Markets Report calls for a 2.5% annual growth rate for GNP during the quarter.

[21036016] |Du Pont, which announced plans for a 3-for-1 stock split and raised its quarterly dividend by 14%, jumped 2 1/2 to 117 3/8.
[21036017] |The company also posted third-quarter earnings that were in line with analysts' forecasts.

[21036018] |Blue-chip consumer stocks also provided a lift to the industrial average.

[21036019] |American Telephone & Telegraph rose 3/8 to 43 1/2 in Big Board composite trading of 1.5 million shares, Chevron advanced 1 3/4 to 66 5/8 on 2.3 million shares, Woolworth rose 1 to 58 5/8, Coca-Cola Co. gained 5/8 to 72 1/2 and Eastman Kodak added 3/8 to 44 1/2.

[21036020] |But General Motors dropped 1 7/8 to 44 7/8.
[21036021] |Its GM Hughes Electronics and financial-services units both reported that third-quarter earnings were down from a year earlier.

[21036022] |Anheuser-Busch plunged 4 3/8 to 38 1/2 on 3.5 million shares.
[21036023] |Its third-quarter earnings were lower than analysts had forecast, and the company said it had lowered its projections for earnings growth through the end of 1990 because of planned price cuts.

[21036024] |Xerox fell 3 1/8 to 59 5/8.
[21036025] |Disappointment with the company's earnings for the quarter led Prudential-Bache Securities to reduce its 1989 and 1990 earnings estimates, according to Dow Jones Professional Investor Report.

[21036026] |Computer Associates International, the most active Big Board issue, was another victim of an earnings-related sell-off.
[21036027] |The stock fell 3/4 to 12 7/8 as 3.6 million shares were traded in the wake of its report that fiscal second-quarter net income fell 66% from a year ago.

[21036028] |Insurance stocks moved higher in the wake of a strong third-quarter earnings report from Chubb, coming on the heels of speculation that last week's devastating earthquake in the San Francisco area would lead to higher premium rates.

[21036029] |Chubb, whose net income for the quarter exceeded most analysts' expectations, rallied 3 3/4 to 86 1/2.
[21036030] |Aetna Life & Casualty gained 1 3/8 to 61 1/8, Cigna advanced 7/8 to 64 3/4, Travelers added 1/2 to 40 3/8 and American International Group rose 3 1/8 to 107 3/4.

[21036031] |Comprehensive Care plunged 4 3/4 to 3 5/8 on 1.2 million shares.
[21036032] |The company reported a third-quarter loss and said it is holding talks with its bank lenders for an extension on some overdue debt payments.

[21036033] |TW Services dropped 1 1/4 to 31 1/4 following the postponement of a $1.4 billion junk-bond offering that would have permitted Coniston Partners to complete its takeover of the company.
[21036034] |Coniston said it would pursue "various financing alternatives."

[21036035] |UAL stock declined by 9 to 161 after nobody surfaced to claim credit for aggressive buying Tuesday by Bear Stearns that sent UAL stock up 35 points in a matter of hours.
[21036036] |Tuesday's rumored buyer, Coniston Partners, wouldn't comment on speculation that Coniston, which battled the UAL board in 1987, might challenge the board's decision Monday to remain independent.

[21036037] |Other airline stocks were mixed.
[21036038] |AMR, which owns American Airlines, rose 3 3/8 to 72 1/4; USAir Group fell 1 1/2 to 38 5/8, and Delta Air Lines rose 1/2 to 66 1/2 after posting higher earnings for the September quarter.

[21036039] |Stocks that reportedly benefited Tuesday from a Japanese buy program handled by PaineWebber gave back some of their gains.
[21036040] |Procter & Gamble went down 3 1/2 to 130, Dow Jones fell 3 1/2 to 37 1/2 and Rockwell International dropped 2 1/8 to 25.
[21036041] |However, Atlantic Richfield preserved its twopoint advance in the previous session and added 1/8 to 103 7/8.

[21036042] |General Mills gained 2 1/4 to 72 7/8.
[21036043] |Goldman Sachs placed the stock back on its list of recommended issues, raised its 1990 earnings estimate and recommended that its clients shift funds from Kellogg to General Mills.
[21036044] |Kellogg dropped 1 3/4 to 73 1/4.

[21036045] |Manville advanced 3/4 to 10.
[21036046] |The company offered to purchase $500 million of convertible preferred stock from the trust that handles its payments to asbestos victims.

[21036047] |Di Giorgio gained 1 to 30 3/4 after the company said it is starting negotiations with unidentified parties interested in acquiring its units.
[21036048] |Investor Arthur Goldberg is pursuing a $32-a-share takeover offer.

[21036049] |Esselte Business Systems rose 1 to 43 1/2.
[21036050] |Esselte AB of Sweden offered $43.50 a share for the 22% of the company it doesn't already own.

[21036051] |Public Service of New Hampshire went up 3/8 to 4.
[21036052] |Northeast Utilities boosted its offer to acquire the company by $400 million, to $2.25 billion.

[21036053] |Newell, which declared a 2-for-1 stock split and boosted its quarterly dividend by 14%, added 7/8 to 49 3/8.
[21036054] |Also, the company posted improved third-quarter earnings.

[21036055] |The American Stock Exchange Market Value Index fell 0.44 to 375.92.
[21036056] |Volume totaled 8,930,000 shares.

[21036057] |Mission Resource Partners lost 5 1/4 to 14 1/8.
[21036058] |The partnership, which had solicited takeover offers, said it failed to receive any adequate bids for all of its operations but is reviewing offers for individual properties.

[21037001] |Japan is going on a capital-spending binge that could make its trade surpluses even harder to shrink.

[21037002] |Its capital spending is growing at double-digit rates for the second year in a row, and its superefficient producers of everything from cars to computer chips are rushing to expand capacity, modernize factories and develop new products.

[21037003] |"The boom's so huge," says Mitsuru Saito, an economist at Sanwa Research Institute, "it makes you think of the Golden '60s," when Japan developed rapidly.

[21037004] |The more factories and robots Japanese manufacturers add, the more they will be able to export, and the less their domestic customers will need to import.

[21037005] |At Canon Inc., for example, sales are up nearly 20% this year; so, the maker of cameras and computer printers is doing what any Japanese company would do under the circumstances: It is increasing capital spending -- by 60%.
[21037006] |It is building, among other things, a new laser-beam-printer factory in western Japan that can produce up to 150,000 printers next year.
[21037007] |Some 70% of them are to be exported to the U.S.

[21037008] |Even companies in smokestack industries wrestling with world-wide overcapacity are joining the boom.
[21037009] |Japan's steelmakers are raising capital spending 22% this year to $4.8 billion.
[21037010] |Hitachi Zosen Corp., a shipbuilder buried in debt just a few years ago, will build a machinery plant, its first expansion in 14 years.

[21037011] |So big is the capital-spending boom that Japanese companies' outlays in Japan topped American companies' domestic outlays by $521.4 billion to $494.8 billion in the 12 months ended March 31 even though Japan's total output of goods and services is less than two-thirds America's.

[21037012] |From a financial standpoint, the boom couldn't come at a better time.
[21037013] |Many Japanese companies expect record profits this fiscal year, and Japanese interest rates, though up a bit recently, are still low.
[21037014] |And in a business system where shareholders have few rights and expect only modest dividends, companies can plow their profits back into plant and equipment.

[21037015] |But some economists and government officials here aren't applauding.
[21037016] |They fear that the boom may be too big for Japan's or anyone else's good.
[21037017] |"It's an explosive cocktail" thrown at the world, says Kenneth Courtis, senior economist at the Tokyo unit of Deutsche Bank Group.
[21037018] |The Ministry of International Trade and Industry is so concerned that it recently took the unusual step of urging Japanese auto companies to exercise caution in capital spending.
[21037019] |MITI officials hope to avoid yet-another source of trade friction with the U.S. even though export restraints currently limit Japanese car exports to the U.S.

[21037020] |Not everyone is worried, however.
[21037021] |Some economists -- and many Japanese companies -- are puzzled by the warnings.
[21037022] |The investment boom is mainly sparked, they say, by strong domestic demand and isn't likely to increase exports sharply.

[21037023] |Moreover, much investment isn't aimed at increasing capacity.
[21037024] |According to a survey of some 2,400 large companies by the Japan Development Bank, expanded capacity is the goal of just 51.8% of the outlays; for manufacturers alone, the figure is 32%.
[21037025] |The manufacturers said 14.2% of their spending is designed to improve products or add new ones, 17.5% is to cut costs, 12.5% is for research and development, and the rest is for maintenance and other purposes.

[21037026] |But the worriers remain unconvinced.
[21037027] |With Japan running enormous trade surpluses against much of the world, they think that Japan should meet the increased domestic demand by importing more.
[21037028] |And eventually, they contend, domestic demand will weaken, forcing companies to emphasize exports again.
[21037029] |"If there's a further drive to export," says Nobuyuki Arai, an economist at the Japan Development Bank, "that'll be a problem."

[21037030] |Even in the short run, the investment boom could exacerbate a disturbing trend: Japanese exports are showing surprisingly little tendency to ease.
[21037031] |Japanese auto makers, for example, are increasing their production capacity in the U.S.; the additional production should, in part, replace imported vehicles with locally manufactured ones.
[21037032] |But although Japanese companies increased their U.S. auto output by 42% from January to September compared with the year-earlier period, their exports to the U.S. will drop only 9% this year, Nikko Research Center estimates.

[21037033] |In contrast to previous economic booms, Japanese auto companies aren't just trying to boost production.
[21037034] |Many are pouring money into developing high-quality products to target affluent consumers and, to some extent, to avoid direct combat with cheaper cars from South Korea and Taiwan.
[21037035] |Others are replacing older facilities with flexible assembly lines on which different models can be turned out at once.
[21037036] |So many companies are investing in high-tech machinery that Fanuc Ltd., a robot maker, also had to build a new plant.
[21037037] |The buildup is "making Japan clearly more efficient, more technologically advanced and more competitive," declares a Western diplomat in Tokyo.

[21037038] |But whatever its effects on exports and imports, Japan's investment boom during the past two years has been stimulated at least partly by soaring domestic demand.
[21037039] |Japan's marathon economy, growing at 4.3% this year, is now in its 35th month of expansion, and some economists are betting that the boom will outlast the record 57-month expansion in the late 1960s.

[21037040] |Japanese consumers are increasingly eager to spend their money, especially on high-priced goods such as 29-inch television sets and luxury cars.
[21037041] |Nissan Motor Co.'s domestic auto sales are up 20% this year largely because its expensive Cima, Sylvia and Cefiro models are in heavy demand.

[21037042] |"One dealer told me that if he had more cars, he'd sell them right away," says Takuro Endo, Nissan executive vice president.
[21037043] |He adds that the company is trying to keep up with demand "by overworking" its employees.
[21037044] |Similarly, Honda Motor Co.'s sales are so brisk that workers grumble they haven't had a Saturday off in years, despite the government's encouragement of more leisure activity.

[21037045] |With demand growing and workers in short supply, many Japanese manufacturers are spending heavily on automation.
[21037046] |Among them are the shipbuilders, which had halved their shipyard work forces to cut costs during a prolonged slump in demand but now are capturing an increased share of the strengthening global market.
[21037047] |Sasebo Heavy Industries Co., a medium-sized shipbuilder, expects its sales to increase 30% this year, largely because of rising demand for oil tankers.

[21037048] |Once one Japanese company steps up its investments, the whole industry follows.
[21037049] |Because most businesses put market share above profitability, to let a competitor's addition to capacity go unmatched is to concede defeat.

[21037050] |The emphasis on market share is evident at Daikin Industries Ltd., Japan's biggest maker of industrial air conditioners.
[21037051] |Seeing new office buildings sprout up and its sales soar, Daikin is building another plant, which will lift its production capacity 50%.
[21037052] |The expansion is aimed not just at meeting demand but also at expanding the company's market share to 30% from 27% currently.
[21037053] |Besides, Daikin's major competitors, Hitachi Ltd. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., "are all adding production lines," a Daikin spokesman says.
[21037054] |"Until now, we were trying to increase productivity with the facilities we already had.
[21037055] |But we can't produce enough anymore."

[21037056] |The competition is even more heated in the auto industry, where companies are racing one another in a world-wide market.
[21037057] |Nissan aims to expand its 25% share of the market to 30% by spending $141 million on a plant in southern Japan that could make as many as 240,000 cars a year.
[21037058] |Meanwhile, Toyota Motor Corp.'s $247 million buildup is increasing its annual capacity by 180,000 cars, and Honda is spending $317 million on expansion.
[21037059] |Mazda Motor Corp. is still considering its options, but it boldly aims to double its annual domestic sales to 800,000 cars in the next four years.

[21037060] |Those who aren't worried about how Japanese manufacturers' investments will affect trade note that many new products aren't replacements for imports.
[21037061] |Although imports account for less than 1% of beer sales in Japan, Asahi Breweries Ltd., which has been gaining share with its popular dry beer, plans to fend off Japanese competitors by pouring $1.06 billion into facilities to brew 50% more beer.
[21037062] |But new-product development will make Japanese companies stronger, and big investments in "domestic" industries such as beer will make it even tougher for foreign competitors to crack the Japanese market.

[21037063] |Moreover, much of the investment boom is in high-tech fields in which Japanese companies have only limited foreign competition; so, more investment practically assures more exports.
[21037064] |Toshiba Corp., for example, is spending $986 million on two new plants to build four-megabit dynamic random access memories, the next generation of computer chips.
[21037065] |The product isn't widely used yet, but Toshiba, which has already beaten everyone else in producing the current-generation one-megabit DRAMs, believes that its early investment will heighten its chances of beating its competitors again.
[21037066] |"It's important to gain leadership," a Toshiba spokesman says.

[21037067] |Meanwhile, Toshiba's Japanese rivals, Hitachi, Fujitsu Ltd. and NEC Corp., aren't sitting still.
[21037068] |After doubling production in one plant, NEC is spending $275 million to build another plant that, in two years, will be able to make a million four-megabit DRAMs a year.
[21037069] |The new chip plants "won't be excessive investment," says Hajime Sasaki, an NEC vice president.
[21037070] |"We have enough products to make and the markets to sell these products."

[21037071] |Some of Japan's goods being produced as a result of the investment boom are already successful overseas.
[21037072] |Toyota's $35,000 Lexus automobile, a luxury model that it started shipping to the U.S. only last month, is racking up orders at a time when U.S.-made luxury-car sales are slow.
[21037073] |Toyota plans to raise Lexus exports when a new plant starts up next year.

[21037074] |What if its sales weaken someday?
[21037075] |Japanese companies have a caveat competitor attitude.
[21037076] |If excess capacity develops, they say, not everyone will suffer.
[21037077] |The losers will be those with the least attractive products, and many of them, analysts think, will be foreign companies.

[21038001] |Benjamin Franklin Federal Savings & Loan Association said it plans to restructure in the wake of a third-quarter loss of $7.7 million, or $1.01 a share, reflecting an $11 million addition to loan-loss reserves.

[21038002] |The Portland, Ore., thrift said the restructuring should help it meet new capital standards from the Financial Institution Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act.
[21038003] |A year ago, Benjamin Franklin had profit of $1.8 million, or 23 cents a share.

[21038004] |In over-the-counter trading yesterday, Benjamin Franklin rose 25 cents to $4.25.

[21038005] |The company said the restructuring's initial phase will feature a gradual reduction in assets and staff positions.
[21038006] |The plan may include selling branches, consolidating or eliminating departments, and winding down or disposing of unprofitable units within 18 months.

[21038007] |Initially, the company said it will close its commercial real-estate lending division, and stop originating new leases at its commercial lease subsidiary.

[21038008] |Details of the restructuring won't be made final until regulators approve the regulations mandated by the new federal act, the company said.

[21039001] |Amdahl Corp., a maker of mainframe computers, reported a sharp decline in net income for its third quarter, citing pricecutting by competitors and adverse effects from a strong U.S. dollar.

[21039002] |Net income fell 37% to $32.9 million, or 30 cents a share, from $52.2 million, or 48 cents a share, in the year-ago period.
[21039003] |Revenue rose 15% to $534.3 million from $464.7 million.

[21039004] |Amdahl's results were somewhat worse than expected.
[21039005] |Jay Stevens, an analyst with Dean Witter Reynolds, said he expected the Sunnyvale, Calif., company to earn 35 cents a share for the quarter and said the firm's weaker profit was partly the result of increased competition from International Business Machines Corp., Amdahl's principal competitor for mainframe sales.

[21040001] |ONEIDA Ltd. declared a 10% stock dividend, payable Dec. 15 to stock of record Nov. 17.
[21040002] |The Oneida, N.Y., maker of consumer, food-service and industrial products also declared a quarterly cash dividend of 12 cents a share, with the same payable and record dates.
[21040003] |The cash dividend paid on the common stock also will apply to the new shares, the company said.
[21040004] |The move rewards shareholders and should improve the stock's liquidity, Oneida said.
[21040005] |The company has about 8.8 million shares outstanding.
[21040006] |In New York Stock Exchange composite trading yesterday, Oneida's shares closed at $18.375 a share, unchanged.

[21041001] |Federal health officials are expected today to approve a program granting long-deferred access to the drug AZT for children with acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

[21041002] |Announcement of the approval is expected to be made by Louis Sullivan, secretary of Health and Human Services.
[21041003] |The clearance by the Food and Drug Administration comes after two years of restricted access for the youngest victims of AIDS to the only antiviral drug yet cleared to treat the fatal disease.

[21041004] |The drug will be given treatment investigational new drug status, a label accorded to drugs believed effective but lacking formal approval.
[21041005] |The move will make the drug available free of charge for a time to children with the disease and symptoms of advanced infection.

[21041006] |Adults with AIDS have had access to AZT since FDA approved the drug's usage for adults in March 1987.
[21041007] |But despite more than two years of research showing AZT can relieve dementia and other symptoms in children, the drug still lacks federal approval for use in the youngest patients.
[21041008] |As a result, many youngsters have been unable to obtain the drug and, for the few exceptions, insurance carriers won't cover its cost of $6,400 a year.

[21041009] |So far, AIDS has stricken 1,859 children under age 13, with many times that number believed to carry the infection without symptoms.
[21041010] |To date, 1,013 of those children have died, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control.

[21041011] |Mothers of young AIDS patients expressed somber satisfaction.

[21041012] |"Thank goodness it's happening.
[21041013] |It should have happened sooner," said Elizabeth Glaser, a Los Angeles mother and activist who contracted the AIDS virus through a blood transfusion, and transmitted it to two of her children.
[21041014] |One of them, a daughter Ariel, died a year ago at age seven after her parents unsuccessfully pleaded for the drug.

[21041015] |"I could get AZT," says Mrs. Glaser, who bears her infection without any symptoms.
[21041016] |"But my daughter couldn't, until she was too ill to take it.
[21041017] |To watch your child die is an inhuman experience."
[21041018] |Her son, healthy and symptom-free, currently takes no medication.

[21041019] |The delay in getting AZT to children has been blamed on a combination of factors.
[21041020] |Traditionally, the medical establishment has waited two years to approve adult treatments for pediatric uses, because of a combination of conservative safety standards and red tape.
[21041021] |Secondly, critics have charged AZT's maker Burroughs Wellcome Co. with corporate inertia because children account for just 1% of the patient population and hence a small part of the large and lucrative market.

[21041022] |Wellcome has replied that it is moving ahead to compile the relevant data, and recently promised to develop a pediatric syrup form easier for youngsters to take.

[21041023] |Still, all this comes nearly a year and a half after Philip Pizzo of the National Cancer Institute offered evidence that AZT could reverse the ravages of AIDS dementia, sometimes prompting dramatic recovery of IQ levels and reappearance of lost motor skills.
[21041024] |Since then, roughly 50 pediatric patients have received the drug in his program.

[21041025] |To some mothers, the expected FDA action is a poignant reminder of what might have been.

[21041026] |"My first reaction is I don't understand why it's taken so long.
[21041027] |Why has it taken people so long for people to understand pediatric AIDS is a major problem?" asked Helen Kushnick, whose son Samuel died six years ago at age three, victim of a tainted transfusion.

[21041028] |Similar sentiments were voiced on Capitol Hill.

[21041029] |"While I'm pleased the FDA is finally releasing AZT for children, it's taken much too long to get to this point," said Rep. Ted Weiss.
[21041030] |"Why did it take Burroughs Wellcome so long to apply" for treatment investigational new drug status? the New York Democrat asked.

[21041031] |"Let's not forget this is the same company that has been profiteering with this drug for 2 1/2 years," Mr. Weiss added.

[21041032] |Mrs. Glaser, who is a co-founder of the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, based in Santa Monica, Calif., condemned neither bureaucratic nor corporate foot-dragging.

[21041033] |"There's no finger to be pointed," she said.
[21041034] |"The crucial thing is that we learn our lesson well, and to make sure other experimental drugs, like Bristol-Myers Co.'s DDI, don't follow the same frustrating course as AZT."

[21041035] |AIDS dementia -- which gradually steals children's ability to speak, walk and think -- is often the most striking aspect of the pediatric syndrome.
[21041036] |For some patients, AZT has restored the ability to ride a bicycle or solve puzzles, giving back a piece of their childhood if only temporarily.

[21041037] |"It's impossible to overstate how much this means to the families of these patients," said Samuel Broder, director of the National Cancer Institute and a main developer of AZT.

[21042001] |AVON RENT-A-CAR & TRUCK Corp. said it declared a dividend of one warrant for each three shares of common stock.
[21042002] |Currently, Avon, based in Santa Monica, Calif., has 3.3 million common shares outstanding.
[21042003] |About 1.1 million Class C warrants were issued, the company said.
[21042004] |Each of the Class C warrants will enable the holders to purchase one share of common stock at $5.50.
[21042005] |The warrants may be exercised until 90 days after their issue date.
[21042006] |Avon also said it will issue an additional 243,677 of the Class C warrants to holders of its Class A, Class B and unclassified warrants.
[21042007] |Issuance of those warrants will be at the rate of one-third warrant for each warrant exercised.

[21043001] |THE BIG BOARD PLANS to launch its own vehicle for program trading today amid growing controversy over the practice.
[21043002] |The new "baskets" of stocks will allow big investors to buy or sell all 500 S&P index stocks in a single trade.
[21043003] |The exchange argues that the product, which the SEC temporarily approved yesterday, will help ease rather than worsen any volatility in the stock market.

[21043004] |SEC Chairman Breeden said he would consider imposing "circuit breakers" to halt program trading during sharp swings in the market.

[21043005] |Kemper Financial Services has stopped executing its stock trades through four big securities firms because of their involvement in program trading, which Kemper and others say is ruining the market.

[21043006] |The main capital-gains tax plan in the Senate isn't winning support from Democrats who favor a reduction.
[21043007] |The trend is making proponents less optimistic a tax cut will pass.

[21043008] |Bethlehem Steel's profit plunged 54% in the third quarter, hurt by higher costs and lower shipments to key clients.
[21043009] |Also, Armco and National Intergroup had lower operating profit in steel, marking what may be the end of a two-year industry boom.

[21043010] |Columbia S&L posted a quarterly loss of $226.3 million as the Beverly Hills thrift reeled from new industry rules and turmoil in junk bonds.

[21043011] |Anheuser-Busch plans to aggressively discount its major beer brands, setting the stage for a price war as the beer industry's growth slows.

[21043012] |PS New Hampshire received a sweetened bid from another suitor, United Illuminating, which valued its new proposal at $2.29 billion, apparently topping all others so far.

[21043013] |Financial markets quieted, with stock prices edging lower, bonds inching up and the dollar almost unchanged.
[21043014] |The Dow Jones industrials closed off 5.94 points, at 2653.28.

[21043015] |Fed Chairman Greenspan said the central bank can wipe out inflation without causing a recession, but doing so will inflict short-term pain.

[21043016] |GM's Hughes Electronics unit said profit slid 22% in the third quarter.
[21043017] |The finance unit, GMAC, said net fell 3.1%, but EDS's profit rose 16%.

[21043018] |Campeau reportedly may receive a $1.3 billion offer for Bloomingdale's from Tokyu Department Store of Japan.
[21043019] |Campeau declined to comment.

[21043020] |UAL's pilots and machinists unions appear to hold the key to any future takeover bid for the airline.

[21043021] |Provigo plans to sell all non-food operations to refocus on its retail and wholesale grocery business.
[21043022] |Also, Chairman Pierre Lortie resigned.

[21043023] |Westinghouse expects operating margins of over 10% and sharply higher earnings per share next year due to a major restructuring.

[21043024] |Some major U.S. trade partners quickly rejected a compromise proposal by Bush to liberalize trade and reduce farm-product subsidies.

[21043025] |Markets --

[21043026] |Stocks: Volume 155,650,000 shares.
[21043027] |Dow Jones industrials 2653.28, off 5.94; transportation 1199.32, off 11.38; utilities 216.49, up 1.45.

[21043028] |Bonds: Shearson Lehman Hutton Treasury index 3427.39, up

[21043029] |Commodities: Dow Jones futures index 129.48, up 0.24; spot index 130.73, off 0.03.

[21043030] |Dollar: 141.52 yen, up 0.07; 1.8353 marks, off 0.0002.

[21044001] |GORBACHEV SAID Moscow won't intervene in East bloc moves to democracy.

[21044002] |The Kremlin leader, on the first day of a three-day official visit to Helsinki, assured Finland's president that the Soviet Union has "no moral or political right" to interfere with moves toward democracy in Poland, Hungary or elsewhere in Eastern Europe.
[21044003] |In Moscow, the Soviet State Bank announced a 90% devaluation of the ruble against the dollar for private transactions, in an apparent attempt to curb a black market for hard currency.
[21044004] |The action will establish a two-tier exchange rate.

[21044005] |Workers at six mines in Arctic Circle coal fields called strikes over a series of economic and political demands.
[21044006] |The move defied a law, approved in Moscow this month, banning such walkouts.

[21044007] |THE HOUSE FAILED to override Bush's veto of a bill easing abortion funding.

[21044008] |The chamber voted 231-191, 51 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to overturn the president's veto of legislation renewing support of Medicaid abortions for poor women who are victims of rape and incest.
[21044009] |The roll call was considered an illustration of the limits of power that the resurgent abortion-rights movement faces.
[21044010] |The legislation was part of a $156.7 billion measure funding the departments of Labor, Education, and Health.

[21044011] |Michigan's Senate passed a bill requiring girls to get parental consent for an abortion and Pennsylvania's House cleared a measure banning abortions after the 24th week of pregnancy.

[21044012] |The FDA is expected to approve today a program granting access free of charge to the drug AZT for children with AIDS.
[21044013] |Adults have had access to the only approved antiviral drug since 1987.
[21044014] |Research shows AZT can relieve dementia and other symptoms in children, 1,859 of whom are known to have been infected.

[21044015] |Congress sent to Bush a $2.85 billion emergency package to assist in the recovery from last week's California earthquake and from Hurricane Hugo.
[21044016] |The action came after the Senate approved the House-passed measure.
[21044017] |In the San Francisco Bay area, more than 13,000 people were homeless and landslides threatened more houses.

[21044018] |House-Senate conferees agreed to continue production of Grumman Corp.'s F-14 jet and to provide more than $3.8 billion during the current fiscal year to develop a space-based anti-missile system.
[21044019] |The final package is expected to be announced within the next week.

[21044020] |The White House has decided to seek changes in pesticide law that are aimed at speeding the removal of harmful chemicals from the food supply.
[21044021] |The changes, which could be announced as early as today, would apply to pesticides and other substances found on fresh and processed foods, officials said.

[21044022] |East German leader Krenz said he was willing to hold talks with opposition groups pressing for internal changes.
[21044023] |The Communist Party chief, facing what is viewed as the nation's worst unrest in nearly 40 years, also said he would allow East Germans to travel abroad more freely, but made clear that the Berlin Wall would remain.

[21044024] |A Lebanese Christian alliance accepted an Arab-sponsored proposal aimed at ending Lebanon's 14-year-old civil war.
[21044025] |The move by the coalition of political parties and Lebanon's largest Christian militia isolated military chief Aoun, who has rejected the plan, which includes political changes and a Syrian troop withdrawal from Beirut.

[21044026] |Baker offered to review Israel's "suggested changes" to his proposal for direct Israeli-Palestinian talks.
[21044027] |But the secretary of state advised Israel that attempting to overhaul the five-point plan risked delaying the negotiations aimed at Mideast peace.

[21044028] |NATO defense ministers said the 16-nation alliance continues to need a strong nuclear strategy despite political changes in Eastern Europe.
[21044029] |The ministers, concluding a two-day meeting in southern Portugal, welcomed Moscow's pledges to cut its military forces, but urged the Soviets to do more to slash short-range nuclear weapons.

[21044030] |The Justice Department indicated a possible challenge to a court order allowing former National Security Adviser Poindexter to subpoena ex-President Reagan's personal papers for use in the defense case against Iran-Contra charges.
[21044031] |A department spokesman said the ruling "raised a serious question" about the office of the president.

[21044032] |Bush said Washington would continue a trade embargo against Nicaragua, declaring that the Central American country poses "an unusual and extraordinary threat" to the security of the U.S.
[21044033] |Meanwhile, Secretary of State Baker said the U.S. protested to Moscow over shipments of East bloc arms to Salvadoran rebels from Managua.

[21044034] |A landslide engulfed a hillside slum in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and at least 20 people, most of them children, were missing and feared dead.
[21044035] |The city's mayor vowed to take legal action against developers who had been excavating at the crest of the hill.

[21044036] |Czechoslovakia's premier said he supports broad political and economic restructuring, but ruled out any dialogue between Prague's Communist government and independent human-rights or dissident groups.
[21044037] |Ladislav Adamec, ending a two-day visit to Austria, pledged changes in Czechoslovakia, including freer travel to the West.

[21044038] |Died: Mary McCarthy, 77, novelist and literary critic, in New York City, of cancer. . . .
[21044039] |Marion Harper, 73, founder and ex-chief executive of Interpublic Group of Cos., in Oklahoma City, of a heart attack.

[21045001] |Adolph Coors Co. said William K. Coors, chairman, assumed the additional responsibilities of president, succeeding Jeffrey H. Coors.

[21045002] |Jeffrey Coors, 44 years old, had been president since 1985, when he succeeded his father Joseph in the job.
[21045003] |But the brewer said Jeffrey Coors voluntarily gave up the position to focus more of his energy on Coors Technology Co., a small unit of Coors he has run for several years.

[21045004] |A Coors spokesman said the company doesn't believe the move will further increase William Coors's influence or reduce the influence of Jeffrey Coors, Peter Coors or Joseph Coors Jr., who run the company's three operating units.

[21045005] |"It certainly wasn't intended to be a demotion," the spokesman said.
[21045006] |"Pete and Jeff and Joe Jr. have taken over the reins and are doing most of the work.
[21045007] |We don't think this will affect that."

[21045008] |Jeffrey, Peter and Joseph Jr. are brothers.
[21045009] |William Coors is their uncle.
[21045010] |Jeffrey, Peter, Joseph Jr., William and Joseph Sr. constitute the company's board.

[21045011] |Peter Coors runs the Coors Brewing Co. unit, the nation's fourth-largest brewery that accounted for $1.24 billion of Adolph Coors's $1.52 billion in 1988 sales.
[21045012] |Joseph Jr. runs Coors Ceramics Co., the other operating unit, which had about $150 million in 1988 sales.

[21046001] |Dun & Bradstreet Corp. said business failures fell 17.8% to 11,586 in the third quarter from 14,099 in the year-earlier period.

[21046002] |In the first nine months of this year, business failures dropped 15.6% to 37,820 from 44,796.

[21046003] |Except for a few spots, notably Georgia, Virginia and Michigan, failures declined almost across the board, according to the business information services company.
[21046004] |D&B defines a business failure as a company that closes with losses to creditors.

[21046005] |The current decline in failures continues a trend begun in late 1987, D&B said.
[21046006] |The drop accelerated in this year's third quarter, underscoring an overall lack of stress in the U.S. economy, the company said.

[21046007] |Failures in seven of nine regional areas fell more than 10% in the nine months.
[21046008] |The South Atlantic States were the only region to report an increase in bankruptcies, up 5.3% to 5,791 from 5,502.
[21046009] |This occurred partly because of more competition as the number of new businesses surged.

[21046010] |The only industry sector to report more business failures for the nine months was the finance, insurance and real-estate sector, where bankruptcies grew 8.1% to 2,046 from 1,892.
[21046011] |The troubled savings-and-loan industry and subsequent stress in real-estate businesses fueled bankruptcies in this sector, D&B said.

[21047001] |A major Tokyo newspaper reported that a Japanese department store concern is planning to offer about $1.3 billion to buy Bloomingdale's.
[21047002] |Campeau Corp., the chain's owner, declined to comment on the report.

[21047003] |A spokeswoman said Toronto-based Campeau has received "expressions of interest" in Bloomingdale's, but she declined to comment on whether any actual bids had been made.
[21047004] |Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Japan's leading economic newspaper, reported Wednesday that Tokyu Department Store Co. is planning to team up with U.S. and Western European financing to buy the New York-based retail chain, which Campeau has put up for sale.
[21047005] |The service didn't identify its Tokyu sources.

[21047006] |"This is the first of many rumors we expect to hear during the sale's process," said a Bloomingdale's spokesman.
[21047007] |"We won't comment on them."

[21047008] |Tokyu executives weren't available for comment early Thursday morning in Tokyo.

[21047009] |Campeau's chairman, Robert Campeau, said at its annual meeting in July that he valued Bloomingdale's at $2 billion.
[21047010] |Among previously disclosed possible bidders is Bloomingdale's Chairman Marvin Traub, who has aligned himself with Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. and Blackstone Group.

[21047011] |Investment bankers in Tokyo confirmed that Tokyu Department Store is one of several Japanese companies that has been approached by representatives of a management committee headed by Bloomingdale's Mr. Traub.
[21047012] |But they said detailed financial figures haven't been passed yet to any prospective buyers.

[21047013] |"Nobody is going to make a real bid before the middle of November," said one investment banker familiar with the discussions in Japan.
[21047014] |"Tokyu is one of the potential buyers who might raise its hand.
[21047015] |But it's in very early stages still."

[21047016] |Bloomingdale's is a 17-store chain acquired last year by Campeau in its $6.6 billion acquisition of Federated.
[21047017] |Bloomingdale's does an estimated $1.2 billion in annual sales.

[21047018] |The sale of Bloomingdale's is a condition of efforts by Toronto-based Olympia & York Developments Ltd. to arrange $800 million in bridge financing for Campeau, which disclosed last month that its retailing units, Federated Department Stores Inc. and Allied Stores Corp., were strapped for cash.
[21047019] |O&Y, owned by Toronto's Reichmann family, is also supervising major restructuring and refinancing of Campeau, a Toronto-based real estate and retailing company.

[21047020] |One executive familiar with the Bloomingdale's situation said, "No book has been issued regarding Bloomingdale's, there are no projections, so I doubt very much whether any bid has been made."

[21047021] |Separately, a Campeau shareholder filed suit, charging Campeau, Chairman Robert Campeau and other officers with violating securities law.

[21047022] |The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, seeks class-action status.
[21047023] |The suit accuses the retailer and several of its officers of making false and misleading statements about the company's business affairs.
[21047024] |The suit says the company failed to disclose material adverse information about its financial condition.

[21047025] |A spokesman for the company said Campeau hasn't seen the suit and declined to comment.

[21048001] |McCaw Cellular Communications Inc. must extend its offer for LIN Broadcasting Corp. because it has "not yet announced committed financing sufficient to complete" the bid, LIN said in New York.

[21048002] |According to Securities and Exchange Commission rules, McCaw is required to keep its offer for the cellular-phone and broadcasting concern open for at least five business days after the announcement of the financing, LIN said.
[21048003] |McCaw's offer is scheduled to expire tomorrow.

[21048004] |Last week, McCaw said it obtained "firm" financing commitments from three major banks in regard to its bid to control LIN Broadcasting.
[21048005] |The banks jointly committed $1.2 billion of financing, subject to certain conditions, McCaw said.

[21048006] |A spokesman for McCaw said the company was "moving forward with our financing."
[21048007] |He added that "hopefully LIN will conduct a fair auction."

[21048008] |McCaw wants to buy 22 million shares of LIN for $125 each, or $2.75 billion, which would result in McCaw's owning 50.3% of LIN.
[21048009] |The offer is in limbo, however, because LIN has agreed to merge its cellular-phone businesses with BellSouth Corp.

[21048010] |In national over-the-counter trading yesterday, LIN rose 50 cents, to $109.25.

[21049001] |NICHOLS INSTITUTE declared a 2-for-1 split of its common stock, payable Nov. 27 to stock of record Nov. 10.
[21049002] |The clinical testing services holding company is based in San Juan Capistrano, Calif.

[21050001] |StatesWest Airlines, Phoenix, Ariz., said it sent a more detailed merger proposal to much-larger Mesa Airlines.

[21050002] |Farmington, N.M.-based Mesa has consistently rejected StatesWest's offers, and early this week said its board wouldn't give the proposal further consideration, calling it "vague and ill-defined" because it didn't describe the source of funds or the specific terms of StatesWest securities which were part of the offer.

[21050003] |The new letter purports to do this, saying that in addition to $7 a share in cash, StatesWest would offer one share of new 6% convertible preferred stock of StatesWest it values at $3 a share.
[21050004] |It also said the cash portion of the transaction would be financed with StatesWest's own cash and short-term investments, plus debt and other financing arranged through Hibbard Brown & Co., the company's investment banker.

[21050005] |In national over-the-counter trading yesterday, Mesa closed at $7.25, up 25 cents.

[21050006] |StatesWest asked Mesa to repond by Oct. 31.
[21050007] |Mesa President Larry Risley said his board had received Stateswest's most recent offer and was reviewing it.

[21051001] |Spiegel Inc., citing continuing improvement in the apparel market, said third-quarter net income jumped 65% from the soft year-earlier period, on an 11% increase in revenue.

[21051002] |The catalog retailer reported net income of $10.8 million, or 21 cents a share, up sharply from $6.6 million, or 13 cents a share, a year earlier.
[21051003] |Revenue rose to $372.1 million from $336.4 million.

[21051004] |Spiegel said margins improved because its inventory position this year didn't need the costly markdowns required to trim last year's swollen levels.
[21051005] |A spokeswoman said the apparel market troughed in the first half of 1988, then began showing improvement in the second half of last year.
[21051006] |"We've seen continued improvement in 1989," she said.

[21051007] |The year-ago quarter's results were crimped by expenses associated with Spiegel's $260 million acquisition of catalog-clothing-merchandiser Eddie Bauer, Spiegel noted.
[21051008] |In addition, the company said ongoing cost-cutting efforts contributed to the latest period's earnings upturn.

[21051009] |Spiegel is 84%-controlled by the Otto family of West Germany.
[21051010] |In national over-the-counter trading, the company's shares climbed 37.5 cents to $20.375.

[21051011] |For the latest nine months, Spiegel's net climbed a solid 47% to $23.8 million, or 46 cents a share, from $16.2 million, or 34 cents.
[21051012] |Unlike the quarter's results, which were based on roughly equal shares outstanding, nine-month per-share figures reflect an increase in average common shares outstanding to 51.9 million from 47 million.
[21051013] |Nine-month revenue was $1.02 billion, up 22% from $841.5 million.

[21052001] |The bad news in the junk bond market yesterday was that TW Services, a group of restaurant chains, became the latest prospective issuer to get a cold shoulder from bond buyers.

[21052002] |The good news -- to fans of stable credit, at least -- is what the rejection says about the state of mind of junk buyers.
[21052003] |Apparently they are learning to say no to excess risk.

[21052004] |Coniston Partners, which with related entities controls 80% of TW, had been planning to sell $1.15 billion of junk bonds, among other things to finance their acquisition of the remaining public shares.

[21052005] |But Coniston, a New York partnership managed by the firm of Gollust, Tierney & Oliver, yesterday announced that "in view of unsettled conditions in securities markets" the offering would be postponed and restructured.
[21052006] |What wasn't mentioned is that Coniston and its investment banker, Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, just completed a two-week "road show" for the purpose of marketing the bonds.
[21052007] |And investors, at least for now, took a pass.

[21052008] |TW's junk bonds weren't, as junk bonds go, unusually weak.
[21052009] |Its fast-food restaurants -- including Denny's, Hardee's, Quincy's and El Pollo Loco ("the only significant fast-food chain to specialize in char-broiled chicken") -- are stable, recession-resistant and growing.
[21052010] |But unless they continued to grow, TW, based in Paramus, N.J., would have run into trouble.

[21052011] |Until recently, such buy-now, pray-for-growth-later deals were routine.
[21052012] |"But people don't buy anything on expectation anymore," says Jack Utter, who manages the high-yield fund of IDS Financial Services.
[21052013] |"Investors," he adds, "are getting religion."
[21052014] |The TW buy-out may yet be financed.
[21052015] |"There is nothing wrong with the company," says Coniston principal Paul Tierney.
[21052016] |The rub, he says, is that "the junk market isn't as deep" as before.
[21052017] |TW's stockholder meeting was postponed from tomorrow to Nov. 21.
[21052018] |By then, DLJ hopes to be able to sell less-junky junk bonds.

[21052019] |Gollust, Tierney & Oliver is likely to contribute more than the $120 million in equity it had planned on.
[21052020] |Banks may contribute more senior debt.
[21052021] |And the total amount of junk financing will be reduced.

[21052022] |A DLJ banker, putting a best possible face on it, asserts that "very few people said they didn't like the credit quality.
[21052023] |People said they didn't think a billion-dollar deal would trade."

[21052024] |But trading risk stems from credit risk.
[21052025] |And by adding equity, DLJ would seem to be acknowledging that credit risk was a concern.
[21052026] |Indeed, the DLJ banker says, in the reborn capital structure cash coverage of interest "will meaningfully improve."
[21052027] |As he sums it up: "We are listening to the market."

[21052028] |What is it, to borrow a term from Coniston, that so unsettled the market?
[21052029] |Some of the same risks that were cited -- and seemingly ignored -- in dozens of previous junk offerings.

[21052030] |The TW prospectus says that if the acquisition had been completed earlier, pretax earnings "would have been insufficient to cover its fixed charges, including interest on debt securities," by approximately $62.7 million in the first six months of 1989.
[21052031] |TW notes, as many junk issuers do, that "adjusted to eliminate non-cash charges" TW would have run a cash surplus -- in this case, of $56 million over six months.

[21052032] |But such calculations ignore the noncash charge of depreciation, taken to allow for the gradual wearing out of french friers, deterioration of stores and the like.
[21052033] |In fact, DLJ says, the company envisions capital expenses of about $180 million a year.

[21052034] |TW's pitch was that sales and earnings at its restaurants have risen steadily and that people won't stop eating during a downturn.
[21052035] |But they won't necessarily eat at Denny's.
[21052036] |The fast-food business is "intensely competitive," notes Wertheim Schroder analyst John Rohs.
[21052037] |Prospective bond buyers noted that TW historically has prospered because it has been willing to spend aggressively on remodeling restaurants and redoing menus.

[21052038] |"We were concerned that they weren't going to generate enough cash for capital spending and also to pay down debt," says a big investor in high-yield debt.
[21052039] |DLJ argues that TW could, if necessary, cut capital spending, since half of what it plans to spend is for "growth," rather than maintenance.
[21052040] |But investors noted that under the shelved offering, TW would have needed to grow to meet its debt payments.
[21052041] |Its calculations for meeting cash charges ignore $52 million a year in interest on cash-deferred, or zero-coupon debentures -- which ultimately would have had to be paid.

[21052042] |The prospectus notes "there can be no assurance" that future growth will continue at past levels.
[21052043] |In the recent past, bond buyers didn't seek such assurance.
[21052044] |Now, apparently, they do.

[21052045] |TW Services

[21052046] |(NYSE; Symbol: TW)

[21052047] |Business: Restaurants

[21052048] |Year ended Dec. 31, 1988*

[21052049] |Revenue: $3.57 billion

[21052050] |Net Income: $66.9 million; $1.36 a share**

[21052051] |Third quarter, Sept. 30, 1989: (Net Loss: 7 cents share) vs. net income: 51 cents a share

[21052052] |Average daily trading volume: 179,032 shares

[21052053] |Common shares outstanding: 49 million

[21052054] |*Includes results of Denny's Inc., acquired in September

[21052055] |**Includes $9 million write-down of assets and takeover defense costs.

[21053001] |Maggie Thatcher must be doing something right; her political enemies are screaming louder than ever.

[21053002] |Mrs. Thatcher, who was practicing the read-my-lips school of politics years before Mr. Bush encountered it, has made clear her opposition to refashioning Britain's free-market policies to suit the bureaucrats in Brussels.
[21053003] |In return, Mrs. Thatcher is excoriated from Fleet Street to Paris as an obstructionist.

[21053004] |Well, it now turns out that Mrs. Thatcher had to travel across the globe to the 49-member Commonwealth summit in Kuala Lumpur to discomfit the Holy Order of Consensus Builders.

[21053005] |"A disastrous farce in Malaysia," screamed the Manchester Guardian.
[21053006] |"She can no longer be trusted to behave in a civilised -- that is unflaky -- fashion when abroad."
[21053007] |Egad.
[21053008] |Canada's Brian Mulroney and Australia's Bob Hawke, the paper said, were "enraged."
[21053009] |The London Times said she had "contravened protocol."

[21053010] |As usual, her sin was saying what she thought.
[21053011] |She issued a separate statement, separating herself from a Commonwealth document reasserting the political value of imposing sanctions against South Africa.
[21053012] |While supporting the Commonwealth "in utterly condemning apartheid," her statement urged it to "encourage change" rather than inflict further punishment on the country's black population.

[21053013] |Actually there is a consensus somewhere on sanctions: In May a Gallup Poll found that most South African blacks, 85%, oppose economic sanctions.
[21053014] |Still, Mrs. Thatcher had once again gone against the grain.
[21053015] |Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad sniffed, "If everybody else puts out their left foot and you put out your right foot, you are out of step."
[21053016] |Mrs. Thatcher: "If it's one against 48, I'm very sorry for the 48."

[21053017] |If indeed Mrs. Thatcher has one opponent that could throw her off political course it is Britain's mysteriously intractable inflation problem.
[21053018] |We cannot, however, join the political chorus that as one proclaims how offputting it is that Mrs. Thatcher refuses to get along by going along.
[21053019] |It is refreshing to see at least one world figure who knows what she believes in and is not inclined to reflexively compromise those beliefs.

[21053020] |Perhaps Mrs. Thatcher understands better than those distressed at her style that ultimately history and Britain's voters will decide who is right about Europe, sanctioning South Africa or running Britain's economy.

[21054001] |Follow With Care

[21054002] |"Work hard, play hard" is advice Best taken with some caution, For it can bring fitness and success Or a state of total exhaustion.

[21054003] |-- Edward F. Dempsey.

[21054004] |Double Check

[21054005] |The guest paid his bill at the resort hotel, and as he departed he noticed a sign saying, "Have You Left Anything?"
[21054006] |The man went back and spoke to the desk clerk: "That sign is wrong," he said.
[21054007] |"It should read, "Have You Anything Left?"

[21054008] |-- Sam Ewing.

[21055001] |After being trampled in Tuesday's selling stampede, the Nasdaq over-the-counter market dusted itself off and moved on in moderate trading.

[21055002] |But while the Composite gained 1.19, to 462.89, many issues didn't participate in the advance.
[21055003] |"It was a mixed bag," said Richard Bruno, who heads over-the-counter trading at PaineWebber.
[21055004] |"We played catch-up in some areas, and sold off in some others."

[21055005] |Volume totaled 132.1 million shares, which is about average for the year.
[21055006] |Of the 4,348 issues that changed hands, 1,074 advanced and 866 declined.

[21055007] |Big financial stocks carried the day.
[21055008] |The Nasdaq Financial Index rose 2.09, to 454.86.
[21055009] |Meanwhile, the Nasdaq 100 Index of the big non-financial stocks basically stood still, easing 0.12, to 452.23.

[21055010] |Despite the Composite's advance, some trading officials are guardedly optimistic that the market is on the road to recovery.
[21055011] |Lance Zipper, head of over-the-counter trading at Kidder Peabody, said it is difficult to make predictions based on yesterday's trading volume.
[21055012] |The advance felt more like a technical bounce, he said.

[21055013] |"The market acted better, but it wasn't a tremendous comeback," Mr. Zipper observed.
[21055014] |"If we get a decent rally {today}, maybe the buyers will come back."

[21055015] |If E.E. "Buzzy" Geduld is right, a seatbelt may come in handy during the next few sessions.
[21055016] |The president of Herzog, Heine, Mr. Geduld expects the market to be "very choppy" for a while.
[21055017] |"There's a lot of uncertainty out there, and it will cause a lot of swings," he said.

[21055018] |Among active stocks, MCI Communications rose 7/8 to 43 on 2.2 million shares, Mentor Graphics added 1/8 to 16 3/8 on turnover of 1.5 million shares.
[21055019] |Apple Computer dropped 1 1/8 to 46 1/2 on one million shares.
[21055020] |Almost one million shares of Sun Microsystems changed hands, but the issue was unchanged at 17 3/4.

[21055021] |Biotechnology issues were strong.
[21055022] |Amgen advanced 1 1/2 to 56; Chiron jumped 2 to 29 3/4; Cetus gained 1 to 16 7/8 and Biogen rose 5/8 to 14 5/8.

[21055023] |The American depositary receipts of Jaguar jumped 3/8 to 11 5/8 on turnover of 1.9 million.
[21055024] |Ford Motor said it raised its stake in the British car maker to 12.45% of the ordinary shares outstanding.

[21055025] |In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Ford said it holds 22.8 million ordinary shares.
[21055026] |The company has said it is prepared to make a bid for all of the shares outstanding of Jaguar if British government restrictions to such a transaction are removed.

[21055027] |Another takeover target, LIN Broadcasting, rose 1/2 to 109 1/4 on 495,000 shares.
[21055028] |Its suitor, McCaw Cellular, also added 1/2 to 40 1/2 on 395,700 shares.

[21055029] |Other stocks were affected by corporate earnings.
[21055030] |Informix, which recently said third-quarter net income rose to 16 cents a share from a penny a share a year ago, gained 1 5/8 to 13 5/8 on 810,700 shares.
[21055031] |The 1988 results included a one-time gain.

[21055032] |Cimflex Teknowledge rose 13/16, or 39%, to 2 7/8 on volume of 494,100 shares.
[21055033] |The maker of software products and services, which had a net loss in the 1988 third quarter, earned 200,000, or a penny a share, in this year's quarter.
[21055034] |It was Nasdaq's biggest percentage gainer.

[21055035] |Star States plunged 3 1/4 to 8 3/4 on 207,000 shares.
[21055036] |The company suffered a $9 million loss in the third quarter, compared with net of $2.5 million a year earlier.

[21055037] |Collagen dropped 2 5/8 to 15 5/8 on 428,000 shares.
[21055038] |In its fiscal-first quarter ended Sept. 30, the biomedical-products maker earned 10 cents a share, up from eight cents a share in the 1988 quarter, which included an extraordinary credit.

[21055039] |Occupational-Urgent Care Health fell 1 3/4 to 15 1/2 on 354,000 shares.
[21055040] |The company's third-quarter earnings also rose to 10 cents a share from eight cents a share a year ago.

[21056001] |Companies listed below reported quarterly profit substantially different from the average of analysts' estimates.
[21056002] |The companies are followed by at least three analysts, and had a minimum five-cent change in actual earnings per share.
[21056003] |Estimated and actual results involving losses are omitted.

[21056004] |The percent difference compares actual profit with the 30-day estimate where at least three analysts have issues forecasts in the past 30 days.
[21056005] |Otherwise, actual profit is compared with the 300-day estimate.

[21057001] |One day last March, CBS Sports President Neal Pilson and Olympics superagent Barry Frank met for lunch at the Lotos Club here.
[21057002] |Mr. Frank told Mr. Pilson that Olympics officials wanted $290 million or more for TV rights to the 1994 Winter Games in Norway.
[21057003] |The CBS official said that price sounded fine.

[21057004] |At that price, CBS was the only player at the table when negotiations with the International Olympic Committee started in Toronto Aug. 23.
[21057005] |Dick Pound, a committee member, began by disclosing that ABC and NBC had refused to even bid.
[21057006] |Then, he asked Mr. Pilson to raise his offer anyway: "If we can have a number that starts with a three, you can have a dea."

[21057007] |Mr. Pilson and his team huddled in a hallway and took just 10 minutes to return with a $300 million offer.
[21057008] |Mr. Pound responded, "It's a deal."
[21057009] |A beaming Mr. Pilson announced his lastest coup at a news conference that afternoon.

[21057010] |Mr. Pilson's rivals at ABC and NBC grimaced at the price.
[21057011] |How could CBS get pushed into outbidding itself?
[21057012] |Well, CBS, mired in the ratings cellar and looking to sports as a way out, wanted to close the deal immediately and block its rivals from getting another chance to bid.
[21057013] |But Mr. Pilson has been put in the uncomfortable role of setting off a bidding frenzy for sports rights, a frenzy that the networks had hoped to avoid.

[21057014] |"The price of poker has gone up," crows Charles M. Neinas, the College Football Association's executive director.

[21057015] |With CBS Inc. on a spending spree that may top $2.5 billion for four years of major sports events, the new bout of hyperinflation could jolt the entire broadcast business.
[21057016] |CBS itself could run up losses of a few hundred million dollars on four years of various sports if its big gamble goes wrong.
[21057017] |ABC, a unit of Capital Cities/ABC Inc., and General Electric Co.'s National Broadcasting Co. also risk losses if they outbid CBS for other contracts.

[21057018] |While rights fees head skyward, ad rates won't.
[21057019] |Advertisers already are balking at higher prices.
[21057020] |"The networks are paying too much for rights," warns adman Paul Isacsson of Young & Rubicam.
[21057021] |"If they ask advertisers to absorb the costs, they're likely to lose all but a few who need sports, above all."

[21057022] |Viewers may not be cheering, either.
[21057023] |Soaring rights fees will lead to an even greater clutter of commercials.
[21057024] |At the same time, some sports events will move off "free" television and onto cable or pay-cable, where half the nation's TV homes can't see them.

[21057025] |CBS has changed the rules by throwing out the old basis for sports bids -- that is, can the network alone make a profit on it?
[21057026] |Mr. Pilson emphasizes the ancillary benefits of positive press, contented affiliate stations, enthusiastic advertisers and huge audiences that might stick around to watch other CBS programs when the game is over.
[21057027] |The billion-dollar question is, How much are those benefits worth?

[21057028] |Some TV people doubt they will materialize and argue that even if they do, they won't offset the multimillion-dollar deficits that CBS could run up.
[21057029] |"As we've seen in the '80s," says Roger Werner, the president of the ESPN sports channel, "those deals can turn sour if the numbers don't work.
[21057030] |And three years later, in a sea of red ink, the heroes can find themselves with a lot of explaining to do."

[21057031] |CBS pursues top sports "to belie the fact that they aren't supporting affiliates, viewers and advertisers," charges Thomas H. Wyman, who was ousted as chairman of CBS Inc. after Laurence A. Tisch bought a 24.9% stake in the company and took over three years ago.
[21057032] |"They lost the entertainment crown, and they needed one.
[21057033] |And they've bought one."

[21057034] |On just three big deals -- for four years of baseball and for the Olympic Winter Games in both 1992 and 1994 -- Pilson bid a total of $1.64 billion.
[21057035] |That's well over half a billion dollars more than ABC and NBC were willing to pay.
[21057036] |(After 1992, the winter and summer Olympics will be held two years apart, with the revised schedule beginning with the winter games in 1994 and the summer games in 1996.)

[21057037] |Now, Mr. Pilson -- a former college basketball player who says a good negotiator needs "a level offocus and intellectual attention" similar to a good athlete-s is facing the consequences of his own aggressiveness.
[21057038] |Next month, talks will begin on two coveted CBS contracts, for the pro and college basketball finals.
[21057039] |CBS is likely to spend whatever it takes to keep them.
[21057040] |The potential bill: more than $600 million for several seasons, an 80% jump.
[21057041] |A few months later, CBS's college and pro football contracts come up for renewal; they could go for close to $100 million more than CBS now pays, a 40% to 50% rise.

[21057042] |"What happens to those two basketball contracts will shape the next five years of network sports," says Peter Lund, a former CBS Sports president now at Multimedia Inc.
[21057043] |J. William Grimes, former president of ESPN, says NBC may "come in with a huge bid for college basketball to take it away from CBS and say, 'We can overbid, too.'
[21057044] |And the winners will be the colleges, not either network.
[21057045] |Nor, by the way, advertisers."

[21057046] |Mr. Pilson is an unlikely big spender.
[21057047] |In the mid-1980s, after ABC had just bid a record $309 million for the 1988 Winter Games, he sniped at rivals for paying reckless prices.
[21057048] |"I love Pilson, but he was the guy who complained most bitterly and loudly," says Robert Wussler, a former CBS Sports president.
[21057049] |"And yet his company is one reason why rights are so high today."
[21057050] |Rivals carp at "the principle of Pilson," as NBC's Arthur Watson once put it -- "he's always expounding that rights are too high, then he's going crazy."

[21057051] |But the 49-year-old Mr. Pilson is hardly a man to ignore the numbers.
[21057052] |A Yale law school graduate, he began his career in corporate law and then put in years at Metromedia Inc. and the William Morris talent agency.
[21057053] |In 1976, he joined CBS Sports to head business affairs and, five years later, became its president.

[21057054] |Mr. Pilson says that when he spoke out a few years ago, "I didn't say forever, and I didn't say every property."
[21057055] |The market changed, he adds.
[21057056] |And he isn't the only big spender: NBC will pay a record $401 million for the 1992 Summer Games, and ESPN, 80%-owned by Capital Cities/ABC, will shell out $400 million for four years of baseball, airing 175 regular-season games a year.

[21057057] |"Our competitors say we overbid them.
[21057058] |Who cares?
[21057059] |Maybe we recognize values the other guys don't," Mr. Pilson says.

[21057060] |Mr. Pilson's "Major Events" strategy jelled after Mr. Tisch took over.
[21057061] |Mr. Pilson recalls that in April 1986, after CBS's annual meeting in Philadelphia, he and Mr. Tisch took the 90-minute train ride back to New York, and Mr. Pilson used this extended private audience to outline his ambitions.
[21057062] |Mr. Tisch, a billionaire in hotels and finance, was just learning the TV business.
[21057063] |Five months later, Mr. Tisch took over as CBS's chief executive, and soon he was wielding sole approval each time Mr. Pilson scribbled a frighteningly large figure on a slip of paper, sealed it in an envelope and gave it to sports negotiators.

[21057064] |Then, in May 1988, Mr. Tisch urgently needed to make a bold statement to quell rumors that he might sell the network.
[21057065] |Mr. Pilson gave him one: He bid $243 million for rights to the 1992 Winter Games in Albertville, France; ABC and NBC wouldn't bid even $200 million.
[21057066] |That started the still-raging bidding wars.

[21057067] |The "Major Events" strategy, Mr. Pilson says, is designed to notch a place for CBS on the crowded TV dial of the 1990s.
[21057068] |It's also a fast fix for an ailing image.
[21057069] |He sees flashy sports as the only way the last-place network can cut through the clutter of cable and VCRs, grab millions of new viewers and tell them about other shows premiering a few weeks later.
[21057070] |Next October, CBS, for the first time, won't have to start the season against the much-watched American and National baseball league championships and the World Series.

[21057071] |"I've been struggling against that for years," says Jonathan Rodgers, who runs WBBM-TV, the CBS-owned station in Chicago.
[21057072] |Even if baseball triggers losses at CBS -- and he doesn't think it will -- "I'd rather see the games on our air than on NBC and ABC," he says.

[21057073] |That isn't surprising.
[21057074] |Regular TV series ratings have slumped in the past five years, and premiering new shows is "a crap shoot," Mr. Pilson says.
[21057075] |But top sports events are still a strong bet to lure audiences 30% or 40% larger than those CBS usually gets.

[21057076] |Mr. Pilson says baseball and the Olympics may help CBS move up to No. 2 in the household ratings race, putting pizazz back into the network's image.
[21057077] |And the Winter Olympics will air during the February "sweeps," when ratings are used to set ad rates for local stations.

[21057078] |That will please once-grumpy affiliates -- another aim of the Pilson plan.
[21057079] |They gleefully await the "dream season" in 1990.
[21057080] |CBS will air the Super Bowl, baseball playoffs, college and pro basketball finals and other premier sports events.
[21057081] |"It's made me more committed to CBS," says Philip A. Jones, the president of Meredith Corp.'s broadcast group, which has two CBS affiliates.

[21057082] |The CBS plan to use big-time sports as a platform for other series carries no guarantee of success, however.
[21057083] |No amount of hype will bring viewers back if the shows are weak.
[21057084] |"In this market of 40 channels, sophisticated viewers and the remote control, trial isn't a guarantee of anything," ESPN's Mr. Werner says.
[21057085] |"If the show ain't a killer, they're gone."

[21057086] |During the 1984 Summer Games, for example, ABC touted "Call to Glory," but the military drama was missing in action within weeks.
[21057087] |Last October, during the 1988 Summer Games, NBC relentlessly pitched a new series, "Tattingers."
[21057088] |It belly-flopped anyway.

[21057089] |Moreover, sports is hardly the best way to lure adult women.
[21057090] |Though CBS might move up to No. 2 in household ratings, most advertisers buy based on ratings for women aged 18 to 49.
[21057091] |CBS may remain a distant No. 3 in that regard.

[21057092] |Nor is CBS a shoo-in to get blockbuster ratings.
[21057093] |In recent years, the World Series and the Olympics were aired against CBS's last-place lineup.
[21057094] |But CBS will put the athletes up against Bill Cosby, "Cheers" and other shows in NBC's No. 1 schedule.

[21057095] |Even the boon to affiliate relations may be limited.
[21057096] |The sports lineup may add only 1% to 5% to a station's annual profits.
[21057097] |It alone isn't likely to stop a station from dumping CBS shows.
[21057098] |"The World Series, seven nights, wasn't enough of an incentive," says Arnold Klinsky of WHEC-TV in Rochester, which dropped CBS for NBC six weeks ago.
[21057099] |"You've got to judge where the network will be in three years."

[21057100] |The intangible benefits may prove extremely costly if CBS can't avoid big losses on the sports coverage itself.
[21057101] |And avoiding such losses will take a monumental effort.
[21057102] |On the $1.06 billion baseball agreement alone, CBS is likely to lose $250 million in four years, contends Mr. Wussler, the former CBS man, now at Comsat Inc.
[21057103] |Nevertheless, he deems the deal "plain smart" for its huge promotional value.

[21057104] |Mr. Pilson calls that loss estimate "wildly inaccurate," conceding only that CBS will lose money on baseball in the first year.
[21057105] |"It's too early to tell" what happens after that, he says.
[21057106] |But Mr. Tisch expects losses in all four years of the contract, he told U.S. senators last June.

[21057107] |CBS will pay an average of $82 million more each year than ABC and NBC had paid together -- and those two networks expect losses on baseball this season.
[21057108] |Yet CBS will air only 12 regular-season games, 26 fewer than ABC and NBC.
[21057109] |That has outraged some fans.
[21057110] |It also indicates a $50 million drop in ad sales for regular-season games -- a risk CBS took to get an unprecedented lock on all playoff games.
[21057111] |If the playoffs end in four-game sweeps, losses could soar.

[21057112] |Advertisers are resisting higher prices, which would help close the gap.
[21057113] |CBS signed General Motors and Toyota to be the only auto-maker sponsors in baseball for four years.
[21057114] |Price: $265 million.
[21057115] |But ad executives who negotiated the deal say that works out to only $275,000 for a 30-second ad in the World Series through 1993 -- 17% less than what ABC is charging for the Series this month.
[21057116] |Moreover, "there's no question ad rates will come down considerably" from the GM-Toyota price, says Arnold Chase of Bozell Inc.
[21057117] |Other admen, however, say rates could rise later if ad spending surges.

[21057118] |The Winter Games outlook also is mixed.
[21057119] |CBS expects to make modest profits, but rivals contend that it will take a beating.
[21057120] |ABC lost $75 million on the 1988 Winter Games, partly because of its $309 million rights fee.
[21057121] |It aired 94.5 hours of mostly live events in Calgary -- helping raise ratings slightly from 1984 -- but still failed to deliver the audience promised to advertisers.

[21057122] |CBS will add 25 1/2 hours to that load in 1992, and ratings could be hurt by a lack of live events.
[21057123] |All prime-time fare will be on tape-delay because of time differences with Norway, so the results can be announced on the 6 o'clock news.
[21057124] |(Turner Broadcasting will pay CBS $25 million to air 50 hours of CBS coverage plus 50 hours of additional events.)

[21057125] |Barry Frank, the agent who took Mr. Pilson to lunch last March, says that even if CBS loses, say, $10 million, it matters little.
[21057126] |"Ten million ain't jack, man, when you got $3 billion sitting in the bank," says Mr. Frank, senior vice president at International Management Group, citing CBS's enormous cash reserves from selling off various businesses.
[21057127] |"It doesn't mean anything -- it's public-relations money."

[21057128] |Moreover, sports has "claimed its place" as a guaranteed ratings-getter, says David J. Stern, the commissioner of the National Basketball Association.
[21057129] |"This isn't outlandish bidding; this is a situation of very careful businessmen making judgments about the worth of product and acting on it. . . .
[21057130] |I would tend to trust their judgment."

[21057131] |That's easy for him to say: CBS's four-year NBA pact, now at $176 million for four years, could double in price by the time his talks with Mr. Pilson are completed later this month.
[21057132] |That would cut into CBS's slim margin for profit -- and error.
[21057133] |CBS Sports earned $50 million or so last year.
[21057134] |And CBS takes in the least money in prime time; ABC and NBC charge 30% to 35% more for ads, according to a Variety survey.

[21057135] |But CBS's costs are huge, and the risks go up with each new sports package that CBS locks up.
[21057136] |Although sports officials predict jumps of 50% to 100% in the major contracts coming up for renewal, ad rates may rise only 20%.
[21057137] |CBS hopes to save money by ordering fewer episodes of regular series because sports will fill up a few weeks of prime time.
[21057138] |But the savings will be minuscule.
[21057139] |Each hour of Olympics and baseball in prime time will cost CBS $2.6 million to $2.8 million; an hour-long drama costs only $900,000, and it is aired twice.

[21057140] |CBS may cushion losses with about $200 million a year in interest earned on the proceeds from selling CBS Records and other businesses.
[21057141] |But media-stock analyst Richard J. MacDonald of MacDonald Grippo Riely says Wall Street won't take kindly to that.
[21057142] |"On a stand-alone basis, the network ought to make money," he says.

[21057143] |When Mr. Pilson is asked directly -- can you make money on all this? -- he doesn't exactly say yes.
[21057144] |"What you're really asking is, Are the profit and loss margins anticipated on the events acceptable to management?" he says.
[21057145] |Then, he answers his own question.
[21057146] |"Yes, they are.
[21057147] |That's the only question we need to address.

[21058001] |Place a phone order through most any catalog and chances are the clerk who answers won't be the only one on the line.
[21058002] |Bosses have big ears these days.

[21058003] |Or open up an electronics magazine and peruse the ads for sneaky tape recorders and other snooping gadgets.
[21058004] |Some would make even James Bond green with envy.

[21058005] |Eavesdropping -- both corporate and private -- is on the rise, thanks to the proliferation of surveillance technologies.
[21058006] |And while sellers of the equipment and companies "monitoring" employees have few qualms, right-to-privacy advocates and some lawmakers are alarmed.

[21058007] |"New technologies are changing the way we deal with each other and the way we work," says Janlori Goldman, a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union.
[21058008] |"Our expectation of confidentiality is being eroded."

[21058009] |On the corporate side, companies claim that monitoring employee phone conversations is both legal and necessary to gauge productivity and ensure good service.
[21058010] |The practice is common at catalog, insurance and phone companies, banks and telemarketers, according to trade groups and worker organizations.
[21058011] |It's also widespread for reservations clerks in the airline, car-rental, hotel and railroad industries.

[21058012] |The Communications Workers of America, which opposes such monitoring, says supervisors listen in on an estimated 400 million calls each year.
[21058013] |Among companies saying they monitor employees are United Airlines, American Airlines, United Parcel Service, Nynex Corp., Spiegel Inc., and the circulation department of this newspaper.
[21058014] |Some Wall Street firms monitor for recordkeeping purposes.

[21058015] |Dictaphone Corp. says there's a big business demand for its voice-activated taping systems, whether the sophisticated Veritrac 9000 system, which costs from $10,000 to $120,000 and can record 240 conversations simultaneously, or simple handheld units selling for $395.

[21058016] |Businesses "want to verify information and ensure accuracy," says John Hiltunen, Dictaphone's manager of media relations.
[21058017] |The state of Alaska recently bought the Veritrac system, he says, "to monitor the Exxon cleanup effort."

[21058018] |Merrill Lynch & Co. and Shearson Lehman Hutton Inc. say they use voice-activated systems to record and verify orders between salesmen and traders.
[21058019] |Shearson says it has taped some of its institutional trading desks, such as commodities and futures, for about four years.
[21058020] |Both companies stress that employees know they are being recorded and that customer conversations aren't taped.

[21058021] |Kidder Peabody & Co. says it monitors bond-trading conversations between brokers and customers to safeguard order accuracy.

[21058022] |Eavesdropping by individuals is harder to measure.
[21058023] |But devices are there for the asking, whether in stores or through the mail.
[21058024] |The Counter Spy Shop in Washington, D.C., for instance, offers the "Secret Connection" attache case, which can surreptitiously record conversations for nine hours at a stretch.
[21058025] |That and other fancy gizmos may cost thousands, but simple voice-activated tape recorders sell for as little as $70 at electronics stores like Radio Shack.

[21058026] |The most common use of spying devices is in divorce cases, say private investigators.
[21058027] |While tape recordings to uncover, say, infidelity aren't admissible in court, they can mean leverage in a settlement.

[21058028] |Concerned with the increased availability of surveillance technology and heavier use of it, lawmakers have proposed laws addressing the issue.
[21058029] |Nine states have introduced bills requiring that workers and customers be made aware of monitoring.
[21058030] |And four states -- California, Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvania -- have adopted rules that all parties involved must consent when phone calls are recorded.

[21058031] |Two bills in Congress hope to make such restrictions national.
[21058032] |In May, Rep. Don Edwards (D. Calif.) introduced congressional legislation that would require an audible beeping during any employee monitoring, warning people that they are being heard.
[21058033] |(The legislation is similar to a 1987 "beeper bill" that was defeated after heavy lobbying by the telemarketing industry.)
[21058034] |Also last spring, Rep. Ron Dellums (D., Calif.), introduced a bill requiring universal two-party consent to any tapings in cases that don't involve law enforcement.
[21058035] |In addition, products such as voice-activated tape recorders would have to include beep tones and labels explaining federal laws on eavesdropping.

[21058036] |The outlook on both federal bills is uncertain, especially remembering the 1987 defeat.
[21058037] |The ACLU and worker organizations back tighter laws, but employers and device manufacturers object.

[21058038] |"I'm sympathetic with workers who feel under the gun," says Richard Barton of the Direct Marketing Association of America, which is lobbying strenuously against the Edwards beeper bill.
[21058039] |"But the only way you can find out how your people are doing is by listening."
[21058040] |The powerful group, which represents many of the nation's telemarketers, was instrumental in derailing the 1987 bill.

[21058041] |Spiegel also opposes the beeper bill, saying the noise it requires would interfere with customer orders, causing irritation and even errors.
[21058042] |Laura Dale, center manager at the catalog company's customer order center in Reno, Nev., defends monitoring.
[21058043] |"We like to follow up and make sure operators are achieving our standards of company service," says Ms. Dale, who supervises 350 operators.

[21058044] |John Bonomo, a Nynex spokesman, says the telephone company needs to monitor operators to evaluate performance during the first six months on the job.
[21058045] |"Sometimes," he says, "we'll pull someone off the phones for more training."

[21058046] |Federal wiretap statutes recognize the right of employers to monitor employees' for evaluation purposes.
[21058047] |And in the past, Congress has viewed monitoring as an issue best handled in union negotiations.
[21058048] |But opponents, led by the CWA, say new laws are needed because monitoring is heavily concentrated in service industries and 81% of monitored workers aren't represented by unions.
[21058049] |The CWA claims that monitoring not only infringes on employee privacy, but increases stress.

[21058050] |"Nine to Five," a Cleveland-based office workers organization that supports the beeper bill, six months ago started a privacy hot line to receive reports of alleged monitoring abuses.

[21058051] |Meanwhile, supporters of the Dellums two-party consent bill say it is needed because of a giant loophole in the one-party consent law.
[21058052] |Currently, if the person taping is a party to the conversation, it's all right to record without the knowledge of the other person on the line.
[21058053] |(Intercepting other people's private conversations is illegal and punishable by five years in prison and fines of $10,000.)

[21058054] |The electronics industry is closely following the Dellums bill.
[21058055] |Some marketers of surveillance gear -- including Communication Control System Ltd., which owns the Counter Spy Shop and others like it -- already put warning labels in their catalogs informing customers of the one-party law.
[21058056] |But vendors contend that they can't control how their products are used.

[21058057] |Radio Shack says it has a policy against selling products if a salesperson suspects they will be used illegally.
[21058058] |"Everything sold at Radio Shack has a legal purpose," says Bernard Appel, president of the Tandy Corp. subsidiary.
[21058059] |He says he hasn't yet studied the Dellums bill, but that requiring a beeping tone on recorders "would be ludicrous."

[21058060] |Still, Radio Shack is aware that some of its products are controversial.
[21058061] |A few years ago, the company voluntarily stopped selling "The Big Ear," a powerful microphone.
[21058062] |With its ability to pick up rustlings and flapping wings, "it was meant to be a toy for children for bird watching," says Mr. Appel.
[21058063] |"But we were getting too many complaints that people were using them to eavesdrop on their neighbors."

[21059001] |The hottest rivalry in the computer industry intensified sharply yesterday as Digital Equipment Corp. announced its first line of mainframe computers, targeting International Business Machines Corp.'s largest market.

[21059002] |IBM fired back with new mainframes of its own, extending the long-dominant 3090 line with a 7% to 14% power boost.

[21059003] |Up to now, the intense competition between IBM and Digital has been confined largely to the broad midrange of the computer market, where Digital sought to exploit IBM's weaknesses in networking.
[21059004] |But Digital's move into mainframes will target IBM's home turf, where it has a commanding 70% share of the market.

[21059005] |Digital, Maynard, Mass., insisted yesterday that its marketing focus would differ sharply from IBM's.
[21059006] |"This is not your father's mainframe," said Allan McGuire, a Digital spokesman.
[21059007] |"It's a whole new generation," he said.

[21059008] |IBM, which gets about half its revenue and more than half its profit from mainframes, also announced upgraded operating system software that, together with the new hardware, lets customers do so-called batch processing as much as 60% faster.
[21059009] |Batch processing is the high-volume, single-job data processing that most mainframes typically chug through at night, such as updating accounts at banks.

[21059010] |IBM said the 16 new J and JH models will generally be available immediately, though three won't ship until the third quarter of next year.
[21059011] |Prices on the larger models, which range as high as $13 million, generally won't change.
[21059012] |Small models, whose performance increased as much as 46%, will carry higher prices.
[21059013] |Upgrades to bigger models also will be costlier.

[21059014] |Digital's VAX 9000 mainframes, which it claimed were among the fastest available, were priced from $1.2 million to $3.9 million, sharply lower than IBM models of comparable power.
[21059015] |The first models will ship in the spring, with the largest following in the fall.
[21059016] |Analysts were disappointed that Digital's new line apparently won't contribute much to earnings before the next fiscal year, which begins in July.
[21059017] |Jay Stevens of Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. said he may cut his earnings estimate for the current fiscal year because he had expected at least some mainframe profit this year.
[21059018] |But he added that he expected to raise his estimate for fiscal 1991 at the same time.

[21059019] |After the announcement yesterday, Digital shares gained $1.25 to close at $89.875 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
[21059020] |IBM shares closed at $103, down 50 cents, in Big Board trading.

[21059021] |Analysts have predicted strong pent-up demand for the new line among Digital's customers.
[21059022] |Large Digital buyers say the new VAX will let them stay with Digital when they need the power of a mainframe, instead of turning to IBM.
[21059023] |"I'm convinced there's a huge market for this machine," said Stephen Smith of PaineWebber Inc.

[21059024] |Digital also plans to compete fiercely with IBM when the giant's customers are computerizing new aspects of their businesses.
[21059025] |Digital, however, doesn't expect to displace IBM mainframes that are already installed at big companies.

[21059026] |In addition to commercial markets, Digital's new line targets the low end of the engineering and scientific supercomputer market, when it's packaged with an optional supercharger, known as a vector processor.

[21059027] |Digital's push into mainframes comes at a time when its mainstay minicomputer line is under growing pressure from smaller personal computers and workstations that operate on standard operating systems rather than on the proprietary systems that older minicomputers use.
[21059028] |Although Digital has staked out a major presence in the booming workstation market, profit margins in that market are much slimmer than for mainframes.

[21059029] |The slow-growing mainframe market also has shown new signs of life lately.
[21059030] |IBM's mainframe sales have held up better than expected this year, with analysts estimating they have risen 10% to 12%.

[21059031] |"Demand for these systems has been very, very strong," said Bill Grabe, a senior IBM marketing executive.
[21059032] |"We have a good strong backlog for the fourth quarter even without" the systems that were announced yesterday.

[21059033] |But the 3090 line is nearly five years old -- which is getting up there in mainframe years -- and its growth is expected to slow in 1990.

[21059034] |IBM, Armonk, N.Y., said it wanted to bring out the mainframes as soon as it could to spark as many sales as possible by the end of the year.
[21059035] |The fourth quarter is always IBM's biggest by far, with most sales coming in December as customers seek to use budgets before year end.

[21059036] |Still, Steve Cohen, an analyst at SoundView Financial Group Inc., said, "I don't see that this will be sufficient to give IBM a significant kick in the fourth quarter."

[21059037] |IBM has already indicated it will have problems in the quarter, partly because of a delay in shipping a high-end disk drive and partly because the strong dollar will cut significantly the value of IBM's overseas earnings when translated into dollars.
[21059038] |Some analysts have estimated IBM's fourth-quarter per-share earnings will fall 10% to $3.57 a share from $3.97 a share a year earlier.

[21059039] |In addition to the new mainframe hardware and software, IBM announced a magnetic-tape system for data storage that it said occupies half as much floor space as older systems but can store five times as much data on a single cartridge.
[21059040] |That should help IBM address the damage that a resurgent Storage Technology Corp. has inflicted in that market.

[21060001] |Concord Camera Corp. completed the acquisition of Peter Bauser G.m.b.H., a West German photographic products distributor.
[21060002] |Terms weren't disclosed.

[21060003] |Concord is a camera and photographic products company.

[21061001] |The Navy awarded Litton Industries Inc.'s Ingalls Shipbuilding division $15.5 million for shipyard services on the Aegis cruiser program.
[21061002] |The award exercises a Navy option to extend a contract given in 1984.

[21062001] |The White House called on Congress to attach the proposed capital-gains tax cut to its final deficit-reduction bill, but lawmakers seem likely to balk at the idea.

[21062002] |Earlier this month, the White House endorsed stripping the controversial tax measure from the bill so that Congress could pass quickly a "clean" bill containing only provisions specifically designed to meet federal budget targets under the Gramm-Rudman act.

[21062003] |But now that Congress has missed the legal deadline for meeting the Gramm-Rudman targets, the White House said it has returned to its original view that a capital-gains cut should be part of the deficit-reduction bill, on which Congress continues to work.
[21062004] |"If that doesn't happen, then we press forward on another vehicle and a separate vote," said press secretary Marlin Fitzwater.

[21062005] |On Capitol Hill, though, there doesn't seem to be sufficient sentiment to pair capital gains and the deficit-reduction bill.
[21062006] |Texas Rep. William Archer, the ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee said, "I don't see how we have the votes" to place a capital-gains tax cut there.

[21062007] |Meanwhile, President Bush stepped up his personal lobbying for the capital-gains tax cut.
[21062008] |The White House said he plans to hold a series of private White House meetings, mostly with Senate Democrats, to try to persuade lawmakers to fall in line behind the tax cut.

[21062009] |The first meeting yesterday was with 10 Senate Democrats who have expressed an interest in cutting the tax.
[21062010] |According to some who attended, the senators argued that the president should give the Democratic leaders in Congress a victory of their own to compensate them for allowing the president to win on the controversial capital-gains issue.
[21062011] |Issues discussed in this context were an increase in the minimum wage and an increase in child-care spending.
[21062012] |The president was said to have been noncommittal.

[21063001] |Toshiba Corp. said its new French marketing concern has started operating under the aegis of the company's West German subsidiary, which formerly handled all sales of Toshiba electronic products in France.

[21063002] |A recent change in French law, according to Toshiba, permitted formation of the semiconductor marketing arm in Paris.

[21064001] |American Telephone & Telegraph Co. unveiled new optical transmission systems for data, video and voice communications.

[21064002] |Two products in what the telecommunications giant called a new generation of such equipment are available now, AT&T said, and three others will be introduced in 1990 and 1991.
[21064003] |The products are aimed at a market expected to total more than $1 billion a year in sales by 1995, said Morgan Buchner Jr., vice president of transmission systems for AT&T.

[21064004] |The products already available are cross-connect systems, used instead of mazes of wiring to interconnect other telecommunications equipment.
[21064005] |This cuts down greatly on labor, Mr. Buchner said.
[21064006] |To be introduced later are a multiplexer, which will allow several signals to travel along a single optical line; a light-wave system, which carries voice channels; and a network controller, which directs data flow through cross-connect systems.

[21064007] |AT&T said the products, unlike previous generations, will meet so-called Sonet compatability standards, which AT&T expects to be broadly adopted.
[21064008] |Sonet, or synchronous optical network, products have more capacity than earlier models.

[21064009] |"These products are the heart of our transmission-product line," Mr. Buchner said.
[21064010] |He declined to disclose specific prices, but said each product costs in the tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of dollars.

[21064011] |AT&T said it expects to beat to the marketplace two rivals, Northern Telecom Ltd. of Canada and France's Alcatel N.V., which also have announced Sonet-based products.

[21064012] |AT&T predicted strong growth in demand for such products.
[21064013] |It noted that last July, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. of Japan selected AT&T to supply $154 million of such equipment over a four-year period starting next year.

[21065001] |Law firms that have feasted and grown on the revenue from mergers and acquisitions work are feeling the squeeze as that work declines.

[21065002] |The disarray in the junk-bond market that began last month with a credit crunch at Campeau Corp. and the failure of banks to deliver financing for a leveraged buy-out of United Airlines parent UAL Corp. has reverberated through some of the nation's largest law firms.

[21065003] |While it is still too early to tell whether the dearth of takeover activity is only temporary, many lawyers say their firms are bracing for lower revenue from merger work, which has been so lucrative in the past.
[21065004] |Much of this work was done for higher fees than other legal work and was not generally billed by the hour.
[21065005] |If deals take longer to complete and there are fewer of them to do, "you can't bill the same kind of premium as when deals took a few weeks from start to finish," says one lawyer at a large New York firm.

[21065006] |"We're planning on a rip-roaring year in 1989, but next year we'll be another story," said Robert Freedman, a partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.
[21065007] |"We're settling down to a less active period."

[21065008] |Lawyers at such firms as Sullivan & Cromwell; Willkie Farr & Gallagher; Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson all say they, too, have experienced a significant slowdown, particularly during the past few weeks.
[21065009] |"Everyone is waiting to see if deals can be done at sensible prices and if money is available," said Jack Nusbaum, co-chairman of Willkie Farr.
[21065010] |"It's hard to know right now if the change is fundamental or cyclical."

[21065011] |Some lawyers say the slump, while more obvious in recent weeks, began earlier this year.
[21065012] |Dennis Block, a partner at the New York firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, said that in the first eight months of this year, 89 hostile offers were launched, compared with 157 for the first eight months of

[21065013] |What's more, he said, "transactions are taking a much longer time to conclude and many fall apart for lack of financing" and more stringent scrutiny by state courts.
[21065014] |Lawyers also say an erratic stock market and uncertain financing conditions have sharply reduced the number of lucrative big deals likely to be proposed.

[21065015] |Still, some lawyers say the mergers slowdown hasn't affected foreign buyers as much as domestic ones.
[21065016] |"We just took another floor for our London offices," said Joseph Flom of the New York firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

[21065017] |Davis Polk & Wardwell also said its international clients are keeping mergers and acquisitions partners busy.
[21065018] |"European companies are looking to buy American ones," said Henry King, the managing partner at that firm.
[21065019] |"But the question is whether things people are looking at will actually surface in live transactions in light of the current market conditions."

[21065020] |MURDER THREAT charged in Haas Securities Corp. stock-manipulation trial.

[21065021] |In the trial of former Haas Securities Chairman Eugene Laff, the defense accused one of the government's chief witnesses of threatening to kill Mr. Laff.

[21065022] |Mr. Laff's attorney, John Lang, filed a memorandum asking that the trial record include a secretly taped conversation in which the witness, Henry Lorin, told a Haas stockbroker that Mr. Laff should be killed.
[21065023] |The conversation was taped by federal investigators in what Mr. Lang said was an effort to get Mr. Lorin to implicate Mr. Laff.
[21065024] |In his opening arguments last week in federal court in New York, Mr. Lang told the jury that Mr. Lorin was the "real master criminal" behind the stock manipulation, and that Mr. Laff knew nothing about it.

[21065025] |In March, Mr. Laff was indicted on 15 counts of conspiracy, mail and securities fraud, and obstructing an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
[21065026] |The government has charged that Mr. Lorin and Mr. Laff were part of a conspiracy to maintain the prices of certain stocks at artificially high prices.
[21065027] |Mr. Lorin, a stock promoter, pleaded guilty to the stock-manipulation charges in April and agreed to cooperate with the government's investigation of Mr. Laff.

[21065028] |During his cross examination of Mr. Lorin, Mr. Lang read from the transcripts of a conversation that was taped Oct. 20, 1988.
[21065029] |Stanley Aslanian, the Haas broker who agreed to carry a hidden microphone during the conversation, also has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities violations in the stock manipulation and agreed to cooperate.

[21065030] |According to the transcript, Mr. Lorin said Mr. Laff should be killed after Mr. Aslanian told him that information given to Mr. Laff by another conspirator could jeopardize the stock scheme.
[21065031] |Mr. Lorin then repeated the threat, and Mr. Aslanian urged him not to say such things.

[21065032] |From the parts of the transcript read by Mr. Lang, it was unclear what exactly Mr. Lorin feared might happen.
[21065033] |When asked for a copy of the transcript, Mr. Lang said Judge Thomas P. Griesa had instructed him not to release it or the memorandum.

[21065034] |During the trial, Mr. Lang asked Mr. Lorin whether he had been so upset "that you considered killing Mr. Laff? . . .
[21065035] |Isn't it true that you were so worked up that framing Mr. Laff for this crime was the least that you planned for him?"
[21065036] |Mr. Lorin responded, "No."
[21065037] |When Mr. Lang asked Mr. Lorin whether he had taken steps to have Mr. Laff killed, the witness again said no.

[21065038] |Peter Lieb, the assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case, declined to comment on the trial.

[21065039] |TRUSTEE WHO MONITORED settlement payments to Dalkon Shield claimants quits.

[21065040] |Stephen A. Saltzburg, one of five trustees appointed to monitor payments to women injured by the Dalkon Shield intrauterine contraceptive, resigned, citing personal reasons.

[21065041] |Mr. Saltzburg, who teaches evidence at the University of Virginia School of Law and was a deputy assistant attorney general in the U.S. Justice Department until August, submitted his resignation earlier this month to federal Judge Robert R. Merhige Jr., in Richmond, Va.
[21065042] |Judge Merhige is overseeing the bankruptcy-law reorganization of A.H. Robins Co., the company that manufactured the shield.
[21065043] |In a letter Monday to Mr. Saltzburg, the judge said he would "reluctantly" accept the resignation.

[21065044] |The $2.38 billion Dalkon Shield Claimants Trust was established as part of A.H. Robins' bankruptcy-reorganization plan to resolve injury claims arising from use of the shield.
[21065045] |American Home Products Corp. proposes to acquire the company.

[21065046] |The remaining four trustees on the Claimants Trust have 60 days to nominate a successor to Mr. Saltzburg.
[21065047] |Judge Merhige will make the appointment.

[21065048] |CHICAGO LAW FIRM recruits American Express Co. vice president:
[21065049] |Coffield Ungaretti Harris & Slavin brought in Howard A. Menell as a partner in its Washington, D.C., office, which opened Oct. 1.
[21065050] |For the past six years, Mr. Menell, 43 years old, served as vice president for government affairs at American Express.
[21065051] |He previously was staff director and counsel for the Senate committee on banking, housing and urban affairs.
[21065052] |The other lawyer in the office is partner Robert A. Macari, the firm's legislative director.

[21065053] |THE PHILADELPHIA law firm of Ballard, Spahr, Andrews & Ingersoll said three partners have joined its business and finance department.
[21065054] |John Ake, 48, a former vice-president in charge of legal compliance at American Capital Management & Research Inc., in Houston, will join Ballard Spahr's corporate-securities practice.
[21065055] |Kent Walker, 45, a former partner at the Philadelphia law firm of Mesirov, Gelman, Jaffe, Cramer & Jamieson, will specialize in antitrust, real estate and mergers and acquisitions.
[21065056] |Richard L. Sherman, 42, will advise midsized businesses.
[21065057] |Mr. Sherman is former deputy general counsel for SmithKline Beckman Corp., in Philadelphia, now SmithKline Beecham PLC, in London.

[21066001] |Delmed Inc.'s top two officers resigned and were succeeded by executives of Fresenius USA Inc. and its parent, Fresenius AG, a major Delmed holder that has been negotiating to acquire a controlling stake.

[21066002] |In addition, Delmed, which makes and sells a dialysis solution used in treating kidney diseases, said negotiations about pricing had collapsed between it and a major distributor, National Medical Care Inc.

[21066003] |Delmed said Robert S. Ehrlich resigned as chairman, president and chief executive.
[21066004] |Mr. Ehrlich will continue as a director and a consultant.
[21066005] |Leslie I. Shapiro, chief operating officer and chief financial officer, also resigned, the company said.

[21066006] |Mr. Ehrlich was succeeded as chairman by Gerd Krick, a director of Fresenius, a West German pharmaceutical concern.
[21066007] |Ben Lipps, president of Fresenius USA, was named president, chief executive and chief operating officer.

[21066008] |None of the officials was available for comment.

[21066009] |In trading on the American Stock Exchange, Delmed closed at 50 cents, down 6.25 cents.

[21066010] |Fresenius owns about 42% of Delmed's fully diluted common stock.
[21066011] |The two companies have been discussing a transaction under which Fresenius would buy Delmed stock for cash to bring its beneficial ownership to between 70% and 80% of Delmed's fully diluted common stock.
[21066012] |The transaction also would combine Fresenius USA and Delmed.

[21066013] |Under the proposal, Delmed would issue about 123.5 million additional Delmed common shares to Fresenius at an average price of about 65 cents a share, though under no circumstances more than 75 cents a share.

[21066014] |Yesterday, Delmed said it "continues to explore the possibility of a combination with Fresenius USA."
[21066015] |It added that it is apparent that any terms of a combination "would be substantially less favorable than those previously announced."

[21066016] |While the discussions between Delmed and National Medical Care have been discontinued, Delmed will continue to supply dialysis products through National Medical after their exclusive agreement ends in March 1990, Delmed said.
[21066017] |In addition, Delmed is exploring distribution arrangements with Fresenius USA, Delmed said.

[21067001] |Philip L. Hall, president of J. Lawrence Hall Co., Nashua, was named a director of this thrift holding company, filling a vacancy.

[21068001] |Kennametal Inc. said it intends to acquire J&L America Inc. for $44 million plus a consideration of as much as an additional $12 million, payable over five years.

[21068002] |Kennametal is a carbide-products and cutting-tools company.
[21068003] |J&L, whose principal offices are in Detroit, is a mail-order distributer of industrial tools and supplies.

[21068004] |The acquisition is subject to approval by Kennametal's board.

[21069001] |Genentech Inc. said third-quarter profit more than doubled to $11.4 million, or 13 cents a share, from a depressed 1988 third-quarter performance of $5.3 million, or six cents a share.

[21069002] |Revenue rose 23% to $100 million from $81.6 million.
[21069003] |Net product sales accounted for $76 million, up from $57.5 million a year earlier.

[21069004] |Sales of the heart drug TPA were $43.6 million, better than last year's depressed third period when the company sold just $29.1 million of the drug.
[21069005] |But TPA sales fell below levels for this year's first and second quarter sales of $48 million, cooling investors.
[21069006] |Genentech stock fell 12.5 cents in trading yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange to $20.125.

[21069007] |In the nine months, net income slid 21% to $28.4 million, or 33 cents a share, from $36 million, or 42 cents a share.
[21069008] |Revenues climbed 18% to $289 million from $245.3 million.

[21069009] |"We continue to be on target for . . . increasing TPA sales 20% to 25% this year," said founder and Chief Executive Officer Robert Swanson.
[21069010] |But some analysts remain sour on the company.

[21069011] |"TPA sales are down quarter to quarter.
[21069012] |Expenses are flat and that's a good sign.
[21069013] |There's contract revenue from {limited research and development} partnerships.
[21069014] |But I still think the fundamentals are poor," said Denise Gilbert, an analyst with Montgomery Securities in San Francisco.

[21069015] |Genentech faces competition in the cardiac-drug market from SmithKline Beecham PLC's heart drug Eminase, expected to receive market approval shortly.
[21069016] |And Genentech isn't likely to have any new products ready for market until at least 1992, Ms. Gilbert added.
[21069017] |"The company's stock is trading at 40 times next year's numbers, and that's too much," she said.

[21069018] |On the plus side, Genentech is benefiting from a lower tax rate due to its research outlays, giving a boost to earnings, she said.

[21070001] |THE AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY'S 1988 costs of fund raising and administration were $72.4 million, or 23.2% of its revenue.
[21070002] |A chart in last Friday's special report on personal finance contained an incorrect figure supplied by NonProfit Times, a monthly newspaper covering charities.

[21071001] |Ryder System Inc. posted a third-quarter net loss of $27.6 million, because of an expected $57 million after-tax charge and continued weakness in the company's truck-rental business.

[21071002] |The loss, which is 38 cents a share, is the transportation services concern's first quarterly setback in more than a decade and compares with net income of $55.3 million, or 68 cents a share, in the year-ago period.
[21071003] |The previous year's third quarter included gains on the sale of aircraft by the company's Aviation Leasing & Services Division.
[21071004] |Revenue was flat at $1.3 billion.

[21071005] |The latest quarter's after-tax charge -- which is 75 cents a share -- was related to adjustments to reserves for workers' compensation claims; reductions in vehicle fleets, staff and facilities; and writedowns of assets.
[21071006] |Although Ryder didn't break out the charge, analysts estimated that the majority of the $57 million was linked to workers' compensation reserves and anticipated losses on the disposal of trucks.

[21071007] |Many analysts said they weren't surprised that problems in many of Ryder's lines of business continued to plague the company.
[21071008] |"It pretty much confirms what we had been expecting," said Anthony Hatch, an analyst at PaineWebber Inc.

[21071009] |In New York Stock Exchange composite trading yesterday, Ryder closed at $22.25, down 37.5 cents.

[21071010] |M. Anthony Burns, Ryder's chairman and chief executive officer, said: "We're constantly trying to find ways to regain the earnings momentum.
[21071011] |But we're still at the beginning stages of some of these changes."
[21071012] |He said the fourth quarter will be "challenging," and maintained his conservative forecast that 1990 "won't be a barn burner."

[21071013] |In the nine months, net income fell 79% to $31.1 million, or 33 cents a share, from $149.3 million, or $1.82 a share, a year earlier.
[21071014] |Revenue rose slightly to $3.8 billion from $3.7 billion.

[21072001] |Robert L. Wood, 37-year-old chief financial officer, was named chairman and chief executive officer of this independent power producer, succeeding Raymond L. Hixson, 63.
[21072002] |Mr. Hixson, who resigned effective Jan. 1 for health reasons, remains a director.

[21073001] |Advanced Medical Technologies Inc. said it purchased 93% of a unit of Henley Group Inc.

[21073002] |Advanced Medical paid $106 million in cash for its share in a unit of Henley's Fisher Scientific subsidiary.
[21073003] |The unit makes intravenous pumps used by hospitals and had more than $110 million in sales last year, according to Advanced Medical.

[21074001] |Maxicare Health Plans Inc., operating under Chapter 11 bankrupty-law protection, outlined terms of its reorganization plan that calls for creditors and shareholders to receive at least $78.8 million in cash and $67 million face amount of 10-year, 13.5% notes.

[21074002] |The plan, outlined in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, also calls for creditors and shareholders to receive common stock and warrants in the new company.
[21074003] |The health-maintenance concern said it reached the agreement with its court-appointed creditors' committees Sept. 28, and intends to submit the plan to the bankruptcy court in November.

[21074004] |Maxicare, which filed for bankruptcy protection March 16, has total debt of $750 million.
[21074005] |The company has promptly paid all its expenses and obligations since March 16, a Maxicare spokesman said.

[21074006] |General unsecured creditors of Maxicare's continuing operations initially will receive $47 million in cash, $35 million face amount of senior notes, and 49% of the new company's stock.
[21074007] |Those creditors, whose claims are estimated at about $200 million, include doctors and hospitals.

[21074008] |General unsecured creditors of Maxicare's discontinued operations, whose claims total $110 million, initially will receive $17.8 million in cash and $10 million in senior notes.
[21074009] |Maxicare's public shareholders will receive 2% of the new company's stock and warrants entitling them to acquire as much as an additional 5% of the stock on a fully-diluted basis.

[21074010] |General unsecured creditors of the parent holding company initially will receive $14 million in cash, $22 million face amount of senior notes and 49% of the new company's stock.
[21074011] |That group includes banks and bondholders, who have claims of $150 million and $350 million respectively.
[21074012] |Maxicare also will guarantee that the banks will realize at least $7 million on certain notes pledged to them.

[21074013] |Maxicare said the plan stipulates that enrollees in the company's health plans will have valid claims covered in full.
[21074014] |Those claims, along with priority employee claims, administrative claims, priority tax claims and administrative convenience claims, are expected to total about $16 million.

[21074015] |The plan is subject to approval by the bankruptcy court and others.
[21074016] |The spokesman said Maxicare hopes to complete the reorganization by early 1990.

[21075001] |Birmingham Steel Corp. said that its Emeryville, Calif., minimill sustained only minor damage from last week's earthquake.

[21075002] |Steelmaking resumed Oct. 18, but the company expects production to be hampered in the next few months by traffic disruptions around the plant and outages for repair to gas and electric power systems.

[21076001] |The average interest rate rose to 8.337% at Citicorp's $50 million weekly auction of 91-day commercial paper, or corporate IOUs, from 8.292% at last week's sale.

[21076002] |Bids totaling $475 million were submitted.
[21076003] |Accepted bids ranged from 8.328% to 8.347%.

[21076004] |However, Citicorp said that the average rate fell to 7.962% at its $50 million auction of 182-day commercial paper from 7.986% at last week's sale.

[21076005] |Bids totaling $425 million were submitted.
[21076006] |Accepted bids were all at 7.962%.

[21076007] |The bank holding company will auction another $50 million in each maturity next Tuesday.

[21077001] |Hughes Aircraft Co., a General Motors Corp. unit, said the Intelsat VI commercial communications satellite is set to be launched Friday.

[21077002] |The satellite, built by Hughes for the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization, is part of a $700 million contract awarded to Hughes in 1982 to develop five of the three-ton satellites.

[21078001] |Italian car manufacturer Fiat said it isn't interested in partnership or industrial cooperation with Swedish auto and aerospace group Saab-Scania AB, which faces heavy losses in its car division.

[21078002] |Fiat said it's only interested in technical cooperation with Saab.

[21078003] |"We know that Saab is looking for a partner for industrial and financial cooperation," Fiat said.
[21078004] |"But that partner isn't Fiat."

[21078005] |The Italian auto maker confirmed that it was discussing technical cooperation with Saab, but declined to comment on rumors that it was planning to buy Saab's car division.

[21078006] |Fiat's rejection of partnership with Saab means that the Swedish company, which announced last Friday that its pretax profit for the first eight months plummeted 49%, will have to look for a partner among other car manufacturers as both Ford Motor Corp. and Fiat have turned down the offer.

[21078007] |News reports said yesterday that Saab is trying to start negotiations with French automakers Peugeot and Renault.

[21079001] |ITT Corp., its insurance business hurt by Hurricane Hugo, reported a 4% decline in third-quarter net income, despite a 4.2% rise in revenue.

[21079002] |ITT also forecast a fourth-quarter blow to earnings from the California earthquake.
[21079003] |Except for insurance, however, ITT said it expects improved operating earnings "in all of our businesses for the full year."

[21079004] |Third-quarter net income dropped to $221 million, or $1.55 a share, from $230 million, or $1.60 a share, in the year-earlier period.
[21079005] |ITT bought back 8.8 million shares this year, including 2.8 million during the third quarter.

[21079006] |Third-quarter revenue rose to $4.9 billion from $4.7 billion.

[21079007] |In New York Stock Exchange composite trading yesterday, ITT common stock fell 62.5 cents to close at $58.75 a share.

[21079008] |In addition to insurance and finance, ITT has interests in electronic parts, defense technology, automotive parts, fluid technology, pulp and timber, and communications and information services.

[21079009] |"Hurricane Hugo losses and the continuing industrywide downturn in the property and casualty insurance business were the major factors affecting quarterly comparisons," said Rand V. Araskog, chairman and chief executive officer.

[21079010] |ITT's Hartford Insurance Group had a $53 million quarterly pretax loss from Hurricane Hugo, ITT said.
[21079011] |Hartford expects to report a further pretax loss of about $30 million for the current quarter, as a result of the California earthquake this month, ITT added.

[21079012] |The company also disclosed its financial operations had increased reserves for bankrupt accounts, resulting in a $40 million pretax charge for the third quarter.
[21079013] |This charge was partly offset, however, by $19 million in pretax capital gains.

[21079014] |ITT also said its consumer finance unit agreed in September to settle a civil suit with the California attorney general over alleged improper lending and sales practices.
[21079015] |Anticipating this settlement, the company recorded a pretax charge of $24 million during the fourth quarter of 1988.
[21079016] |An ITT spokesman said the charge wasn't publicly reported at the time.

[21079017] |"The company's product businesses, with the exception of electronic components, had higher operating earnings for the first nine months of 1989," the company said.
[21079018] |Elaborating on the exception, it said volume and margins were lower in semiconductor and power systems operations.

[21080001] |Amoco Corp. said it plans to install two platforms and drill as many as 22 wells to develop oil reserves it discovered in the Atlantic Ocean about 25 miles off the coast of Congo.

[21080002] |Amoco, an energy concern, is the operator of the project with a 43.75% working interest, and other partners include Hydro Congo, the Congolese state oil company, with a 50% interest, and Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co. with a 6.25% stake.
[21080003] |Production is expected to be about 40,000 barrels of oil a day after completion of the drilling program.

[21081001] |Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.'s Jacobs International unit was selected to design and build a microcomputer-systems manufacturing plant in County Kildare, Ireland, for Intel Corp.

[21081002] |Jacobs is an international engineering and construction concern.
[21081003] |Total capital investment at the site could be as much as $400 million, according to Intel.

[21081004] |The 150,000-square-foot plant will be constructed on a 55-acre site near Dublin.
[21081005] |Jacobs Engineering officials couldn't be reached for comment.

[21082001] |Bob Evans Inc. said its board authorized the purchase of as many as 500,000 shares of its common.

[21082002] |The stock, to be purchased on the open market or through privately negotiated transactions, will be held as treasury shares for stock options or other general corporate purposes.
[21082003] |The program expires April 27.
[21082004] |The restaurant operator had 32.2 million shares outstanding as of Sept. 29.

[21083001] |Coda Energy Inc. said it completed the sale of Phenix-Transmission Co. to Bishop Pipeline Co., for $17 million in cash and notes.

[21083002] |Coda, an oil and gas concern, said it and its partners received $7 million in cash and $10 million in five-year notes for the Kansas intrastate pipeline.
[21083003] |Coda owned 60% of the pipeline and private entities owned the rest.

[21083004] |Bishop is based in Hutchinson, Kansas.

[21084001] |French consumer prices rose 0.2% in September from August, according to provisional estimates by the National Statistics Institute.

[21084002] |The agency noted that because of a strike by Finance Ministry personnel the provisional estimate doesn't correspond exactly to the consumer price index usually published.
[21084003] |The agency noted, however, the estimate will likely be confirmed.

[21084004] |The institute didn't estimate annual price growth in September, but a 0.2% rise by the consumer price index would put growth at either 178.8 or 178.9, up 3.3% or 3.4% from the year-earlier level of 173.1.
[21084005] |The index was 178.5 in August and is based on 1980 equaling 100.

[21085001] |International Technology Corp. and Davy McKee Corp., a unit of London's Davy Corp., said they were awarded a $55 million contract by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the closure of the Helen Kramer Landfill Superfund site in Mantua Township, N.J.

[21085002] |International Technology, an environmental management concern, said the contract includes construction of slurry walls, gas collection systems, a multilayer cap and water treatment plant.

[21086001] |U.S. Memories Inc., the venture that seeks to crack Japan's domination of the memory-chip market, said it has chosen four potential sites for its operations after a fierce bidding war by 15 states.

[21086002] |U.S. Memories said it will begin visits during the next several weeks to sites in Austin, Texas; Colorado Springs, Colo.; Middletown, N.Y.; and Phoenix, Ariz.
[21086003] |Sanford Kane, president, said the finalists were chosen from among 57 locations based on financial, business, and quality of life considerations.

[21086004] |Conspicuous by its absence is California.
[21086005] |San Jose and several other California cities mounted major campaigns during the summer to woo the group, which was founded last June by seven electronics concerns.

[21086006] |The venture plans to announce a final site by late November.
[21086007] |It expects to begin construction by year end and start shipping four-megabit dynamic random-access memory chips by mid-1991.

[21086008] |U.S. Memories investors include Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Digital Equipment Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., International Business Machines Corp., Intel Corp., LSI Logic Corp., and National Semiconductor Corp.
[21086009] |Mr. Kane said he expects several other companies to join some time after the venture completes a business plan, probably later this week.

[21087001] |A seat on the Chicago Board of Trade was sold for $390,000, unchanged from the previous sale Oct. 13.

[21087002] |Seats currently are quoted at $361,000 bid, $395,000 asked.

[21087003] |The record price for a full membership on the exchange is $550,000, set Aug. 31, 1987.

[21088001] |Dennis R. Mangino, a general manager of EniChem Americas, was named vice president of research and development, a new post at this steel company.

[21089001] |Fred D. Thompson, a 47-year-old attorney in private practice in Washington and Nashville, Tenn., was elected to the board of this engineering and construction company.
[21089002] |The board increased to 11 seats.

[21090001] |Sun Microsystems Inc. said Prime Computer Inc. has agreed to resell as much as $200 million worth of Sun's machines over the next two years.

[21090002] |The computers use the company's own microprocessor called Sparc, Sun said.

[21091001] |Quickview Systems Inc. said it filed a lawsuit against Apple Computer Inc., claiming patent infringement in an element of Apple's popular HyperCard software program.

[21091002] |The suit, filed in Minneapolis federal court, claims that Apple violated a Quickview patent that allows computer users to display "only portions of multiple fields on a computer screen with the ability to see the entire contents of any given field."

[21091003] |The HyperCard program allows users to design applications for Macintosh computers without having to be hardcore programmers and is distributed with every Macintosh sold.
[21091004] |It's one of the most popular computer programs of all time, but analysts said the Quickview suit doesn't appear to bode major difficulties for Apple.

[21091005] |The technology at issue "is not an underlying technology of HyperCard to my knowledge," said Danny Goodman, a San Francisco-area HyperCard program developer.

[21091006] |Nonetheless, the suit seeks unspecified damages that an attorney for Quickview claimed could run into the millions of dollars.

[21091007] |In Cupertino, Calif., Apple said that it believes the case has no merit, and that HyperCard does not infringe "any valid claims" of the Quickview patents.
[21091008] |It said it filed an action of its own in federal court in San Jose, Calif., seeking a declaration that Quickview's claims are invalid.

[21092001] |This is in response to Atsushi Kageyama's Manager's Journal, "Looking for the Real Thing in Sony" (editorial page, Oct. 2).
[21092002] |Though I agree with many of Mr. Kageyama's comments, I believe he points the gun in the wrong direction: It isn't the Americans who must be criticized for not understanding the Japanese culture, but the Japanese who insist on forcing their culture on Americans.
[21092003] |The Japanese want us to accept their culture, but they refuse to accept the American culture.
[21092004] |Japanese managers can't expect Americans to behave as if they were Japanese; instead, they must manage Americans as Americans.

[21092005] |Americans are expected to conform to the Japanese culture when in Japan.
[21092006] |What is wrong with expecting the Japanese to conform to American norms when they locate here?
[21092007] |Americans place native or native speakers in charge of subsidiaries overseas.
[21092008] |European multinationals do likewise; even in America, their affiliates are usually run by American managers.
[21092009] |But the Japanese insist upon Japanese managers everywhere they set up shop.
[21092010] |Do the Japanese feel so superior that they cannot find capable American managers?

[21092011] |Paul A. Herbig Indiana University Bloomington, Ind.

[21092012] |Mr. Kageyama suggests that Kotobuki Electronics Industries workers were having difficulty understanding their foreign bosses' perspective.
[21092013] |While Mr. Kageyama does an excellent job of explaining the differences, both cultural and philosophic, I question his perspective.

[21092014] |Would he suggest that employees of an American company doing business in Japan conform to their new bosses' culture and philosophy?
[21092015] |Obviously not.
[21092016] |Thus the conclusion is that the burden rests with management to understand/adopt the culture and philosophy of the country in which they are operating.
[21092017] |The workers can be motivated, and the company reach its full potential, only when management embraces the employees' perspective.

[21092018] |A. Lawton Langford President Municipal Code Corp. Tallahassee, Fla.

[21092019] |I believe Mr. Kageyama left out one major aspect of Japanese culture that permeated his piece: the belief in the superiority of Japanese culture and behavior vs. others.

[21092020] |A manager should not have to rebut the opinions of his employees about the style of his management.
[21092021] |Instead, he should listen to see how that criticism can be used constructively to advance his objective of carrying out a set of tasks through the efforts of his subordinates.
[21092022] |Japanese culture vs. American culture is irrelevant.
[21092023] |The key is how a manager from one culture can motivate employees from another.

[21092024] |For Mr. Kageyama to argue that American employees must passively accept a direct imposition of the Japanese way of doing things is outright cultural chauvinism of the first order.
[21092025] |The Japanese are neglecting the opportunity to synthesize a new corporate culture based on a fusion of the best aspects of both national cultures.

[21092026] |Mr. Kageyama is accurate to deny a specific anti-American bias.
[21092027] |It is more difficult to deny a general bigotry in seeing things only the Japanese way.
[21092028] |When the response to criticism is only a better explanation of policies without altering the reasons for the criticism, I am convinced that Mr. Kageyama has still failed to attack the root cause of the problem and is simply treating symptoms.

[21092029] |Norman L. Owens Tempe, Ariz.

[21093001] |Cie. Generale des Eaux reported that net profit climbed 30% in the first half of 1989 and said that it expects a gain of about 25% for the full year.

[21093002] |The French water treatment group said consolidated net profit after payments to minority interests rose to 749 million francs (US$119.2 million) from 575 million francs in the first half of 1988.
[21093003] |Revenue climbed 13% to 45.4 billion francs from 40.1 billion.

[21093004] |Generale des Eaux said the earnings gain was led by its water, energy and building activities.

[21094001] |As a presidential candidate in 1980, George Bush forthrightly expressed his position on abortion in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine published that March.
[21094002] |What did he think of the Supreme Court's decision legalizing abortion?

[21094003] |"I happen to think it was right," Mr. Bush said flatly.

[21094004] |A few months later, Mr. Bush became Ronald Reagan's running mate.
[21094005] |Suddenly, George Bush the pro-choice advocate became George Bush the anti-abortionist.
[21094006] |And the vacillation didn't end there.

[21094007] |Just a month ago, Mr. Bush sternly threatened to veto a pending welfare bill if it provided any abortion funds, except to save a woman's life.
[21094008] |Then, two weeks ago -- declaring that "I'm not looking for any conflict over this" -- the president said he would consider a compromise to fund abortions for poor women in cases of rape and incest.

[21094009] |But only four days after that, Mr. Bush resurrected the veto threat.
[21094010] |"I do not support federal funding for abortions except where the mother's life is threatened," he proclaimed, and finally vetoed the measure last weekend.

[21094011] |So what does George Bush really believe?
[21094012] |The answer is so murky that it is beginning to get this popular president in trouble with each of the increasingly vocal, increasingly powerful sides of the abortion issue.
[21094013] |The result is mistrust and criticism from all around.

[21094014] |Anti-abortion forces regard him as at best an uncertain ally.
[21094015] |"In all honesty if you ask me, `Is this man a true believer?' I don't know," says John Fowler, head of the Washington-based Ad Hoc Committee in Defense of Life Inc.
[21094016] |Yet abortion-rights forces remain bitterly critical.
[21094017] |Douglas Gould, vice president of communications for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, calls Mr. Bush's position on the abortion-funding issue "extremely cruel," adding: "The guy hasn't done one thing about prevention.
[21094018] |He's totally geared to a punitive position."

[21094019] |Mr. Bush is plainly uncomfortable with the entire abortion question.
[21094020] |For most of the past nine years, he has striven to convince anti-abortion activists of his stalwart support for their position.
[21094021] |But ever since the Supreme Court's Webster vs. Reproductive Health Services decision this year changed the political landscape of the abortion issue, the president seemingly has tried just as hard to avoid saying anything more unless pressed to the wall.

[21094022] |Many Americans still agonize over their own personal feelings about abortion.
[21094023] |Mr. Bush's problem isn't so much that he seems to be agonizing over the issue as it is that he seems to vacillate on it.
[21094024] |The political risk would be far less if the president drew a firm line and hewed to it, experts insist.
[21094025] |"If you have a position, you're better off to stick with it than to move around very much," says Republican strategist John Sears.
[21094026] |The need for consistency is especially acute for Mr. Bush, who, Mr. Sears maintains, lacks a strong ideological base.

[21094027] |By his moderate Republican heritage as well as the warnings of political advisers who say the issue is vital to younger voters, the president might seem to have at least some sympathy with abortion-rights arguments.
[21094028] |Yet he is also firmly bound by his hard-line rhetoric and promises he made to anti-abortion activists during his long pursuit of the White House.
[21094029] |On many issues -- flag-burning, for instance -- his keen political sensitivities overcome such conflicts.

[21094030] |But Mr. Bush and his advisers miscalculated the politics of the abortion issue, failing to grasp how dramatically the abortion-rights movement would be aroused following last summer's Supreme Court decision to restrict those rights in the Webster case.

[21094031] |"It was one of the quickest changes in public attitudes I've ever seen," says former Reagan pollster Richard Wirthlin.

[21094032] |These days, when others raise the subject of abortion, the usually loquacious president can be close-mouthed almost to the point of curtness.
[21094033] |Ten days ago he was asked to amplify the reasons behind his anti-abortion stance.
[21094034] |"My position is well-known and well-stated," he replied.

[21094035] |A close look at his record over the last 15 years suggests that Mr. Bush has well-stated his views -- on all sides of the issue.

[21094036] |In 1974, as the U.S. representative to the United Nations, he wrote an introduction to a book on world population in which he boasted of his leadership during his term in Congress in expanding family-planning services for the poor.
[21094037] |Running for president in early 1980, he was also quoted as supporting federal funding for abortions in cases of rape, incest and to save the life of the mother.

[21094038] |In his Rolling Stone interview in 1980, Mr. Bush volunteered his abortion-rights remarks to contrast himself with his rival, Ronald Reagan.
[21094039] |In addition to supporting the landmark Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, Mr. Bush said he opposed the constitutional ban on abortion that Mr. Reagan was promising to promote.

[21094040] |As Mr. Reagan's running mate, though, Mr. Bush plunged headlong into the anti-abortion position, endorsing a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion.
[21094041] |He acknowledged only one difference with Mr. Reagan -- that the amendment ought to have exceptions for rape and incest as well as to save a woman's life.

[21094042] |Throughout the early 1980s, Mr. Bush was quoted sometimes supporting federal funding for abortion in cases of rape and incest and sometimes opposing it.
[21094043] |In April 1986, then-Vice President Bush had his staff write a letter spelling out that he would support a constitutional amendment banning abortions except in cases of rape, incest and life endangerment, but that he opposed federal funding in all but the latter case.
[21094044] |At the GOP convention last year, he again came out for an amendment with exceptions for rape, incest and life endangerment.

[21094045] |His rhetoric gathered momentum as he rolled into office, affirming his "firm support of our cause" during an anti-abortion rally three days after his inauguration last January.
[21094046] |He again urged passage of a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion.

[21094047] |But when the high court ruled in the Webster case in July, the president began to lower the volume.
[21094048] |When the ruling was handed down, the vacationing president dispatched Chief of Staff John Sununu to issue a statement and refused to answer questions himself.
[21094049] |He did later threaten vetoes over legislation restoring the District of Columbia's right to use its own tax money to fund abortions for poor women and over restoring funding to the United Nations Population Fund.
[21094050] |But in the months since then, while trying to drum up support for other issues -- such as an anti-flag-burning constitutional amendment -- he has shied away from talking about abortion.
[21094051] |What few comments he has initiated have been oblique, such as urging "greater efforts toward the protection of human life" at a meeting of Catholic lawyers in Boston last month.

[21094052] |The White House has likewise avoided any involvement in Florida's recent special legislative session on abortion, which anti-abortion forces had regarded as a key test of their ability to get state lawmakers to toughen abortion restrictions.
[21094053] |The session failed to enact any new curbs.

[21094054] |Now, some see Mr. Bush trapped in a position he is neither comfortable with nor able to escape.
[21094055] |Ken Ruberg, head of the Republican Mainstream Committee, a group of party moderates, observes: "The administration finds itself in an ideological cul de sac that it will find it difficult -- if not impossible -- to get itself out of.

[21095001] |Christopher Cox's Oct. 13 editorial-page article "Toward More Crippling Lawsuits . . ." misses the point.
[21095002] |The 1989 Americans With Disabilities Act is about eliminating discriminatory barriers.

[21095003] |When we look closely at our own history, it is clear that our constitutionally mandated civil rights have evolved not through the goodness of people's hearts but through legislation and constitutional amendments.
[21095004] |This is how American women won the right to vote.
[21095005] |And it is how African-Americans and other minority groups were guaranteed their equal rights as citizens in this nation.

[21095006] |For the more than 43 million Americans with disabilities, the 1989 Americans With Disabilities Act provides the missing piece.
[21095007] |Disabled Americans have had their civil rights guaranteed in all federally funded programs since Section 504 was passed as a part of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act.
[21095008] |The 1989 act simply extends these guarantees to the private sector.
[21095009] |Those who fear a plethora of suits paralyzing our legal system need only look at the record on the Rehabilitation Act.
[21095010] |Without legal recourse, there are no guarantees of civil rights for anyone.

[21095011] |John R. Garrison President National Easter Seal Society

[21096001] |Ford Motor Co. said it is consolidating control of its Asian operations under a new organization here that will be headed by W. Wayne Booker.

[21096002] |Ford Asia-Pacific will coordinate the activities of Ford subsidiaries in Japan, Australia, Taiwan and New Zealand and work with Ford business associates throughout the region.
[21096003] |These functions are currently performed out of Melbourne, Australia, and at Ford's headquarters in Dearborn, Mich.

[21096004] |Mr. Booker, executive director of Ford's Latin America Automotive Operations since December 1988, was named vice president of Ford Asia-Pacific.

[21097001] |Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., buoyed by improved operating profit in its tire segment, reported that third-quarter net income rose 11% to $70.5 million, or $1.22 a share.

[21097002] |In the year-ago period, Goodyear had net of $63.5 million, or $1.11 a share.

[21097003] |Sales rose slightly to $2.68 billion, from $2.66 billion.

[21097004] |Analysts had mixed responses to the results.
[21097005] |Donald DeScenza, an independent analyst in New Canaan, Conn., said he was "impressed with the company's performance."
[21097006] |He said results were better than he'd expected and indicate that Goodyear is in the midst of a turnaround from a string of lackluster quarters that have plagued the company for a year.

[21097007] |However, Harry Millis, an analyst at McDonald & Co., Cleveland, said Goodyear's results "fell at the bottom" of his range of estimates.
[21097008] |Excluding an increase in the tax rate and the effects of foreign currency translations, Mr. Millis said the company's results "were still a little disappointing."

[21097009] |Goodyear's stock, which has been weak in recent weeks, fell $2.875 yesterday to close at $43.875 a share in composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

[21097010] |The Akron, Ohio-based company said pretax operating income in its tire segment jumped about 31% to $196.2 million from $150.2 million a year earlier, reflecting improvements in raw material costs, sales of replacement tires and pricing.

[21097011] |McDonald's Mr. Millis said Goodyear appeared to have held or gained some market share in the U.S. for the first time since the second quarter of 1988.

[21097012] |But Goodyear said total U.S. tire unit sales were off about 2%.
[21097013] |Total tire segment sales were up only about 1% to $2.2 billion, and the company said it reduced manufacturing levels at some of its U.S. tire plants because of inventory adjustments and slackened production by auto makers.

[21097014] |In the latest quarter, Goodyear's tax rate was 51% compared with 41% a year earlier.
[21097015] |As a result, total tax outlays were $73.5 million, compared with $44.1 million the year earlier.

[21097016] |For the nine months, profit skidded about 35%, reflecting charges taken in this year's second quarter and the effect of translations of weaker foreign currencies into the stronger U.S. dollar.

[21097017] |Net was $192.1 million, or $3.33 a share, compared with net of $293.7 million, or $5.13 a share, the year earlier.

[21097018] |The latest nine months included charges of $95 million related to the company's South African subsidiary and unused pipe sold by its crude oil pipeline unit.

[21097019] |Sales rose nearly 2% to $8.13 billion from $7.98 billion.

[21098001] |Environmental Control Group Inc. said it expects to report "minimal" earnings or a loss for the third quarter.

[21098002] |The environmental services company said that the discontinuation of unsuccessful product lines and an increase in baddebt reserves probably will result in charges of $2.5 million to $4 million, most of which will be taken against third-quarter results.

[21098003] |In the year-ago quarter, the company reported earnings of $2.2 million, or 35 cents a share.

[21099001] |Former USX Corp. Chairman David M. Roderick may have been lucky he retired last May.

[21099002] |As he handed over the reins to successor Charles A. Corry, steel profits were close to a cyclical peak.
[21099003] |Though imports were troublesome, they weren't running away with the market, and American companies had high hopes that steel import quotas would be extended for another five years.
[21099004] |Perhaps most important, Carl Icahn, who had once threatened a hostile takeover bid, was subdued.
[21099005] |He and Mr. Roderick were even dining out together.

[21099006] |Today, Mr. Corry presides over a company whose fortunes have changed abruptly.
[21099007] |Mr. Icahn, the company's deep-pocketed, tenacious adversary, recently disclosed that he had raised his USX stake to 13.1%, and he again threatened a takeover.
[21099008] |A battle with Mr. Icahn would rattle even the most seasoned chief executive, to say nothing of one who took the helm less than five months ago.

[21099009] |In addition, USX's giant steel segment, representing 34% of its 1988 sales, is facing softening demand and slipping prices as well as increasing competition from foreign steelmakers and low-cost minimills.
[21099010] |The import quotas got only a 2 1/2-year extension, and USX is laboring under a staggering $5.8 billion debt at a time when it must spend money to upgrade steel mills and drill for oil.
[21099011] |"It's a baptism of fire for Corry," says one USX executive.

[21099012] |The burning question is whether the new chief can parry Mr. Icahn without being pushed into unwelcome moves.
[21099013] |Mr. Corry might have to dismember the company more than he wants to.
[21099014] |Or he might have to incur a huge expense of either buying Mr. Icahn's stock, possibly at a premium, or paying stockholders a special dividend partly because of Mr. Icahn's pressure.

[21099015] |With his recent purchases of USX common stock, Mr. Icahn shattered a three-year-old, unwritten standstill agreement with Mr. Roderick.
[21099016] |In 1986, Mr. Roderick adroitly dodged Mr. Icahn's first bullet after the takeover specialist had built up an 11.4% stake.
[21099017] |Mr. Roderick did so by having USX redeem a series of guaranteed notes, a move that, in effect, raised the cost of a $7.19 billion Icahn bid by about $3 billion.
[21099018] |And he managed to fend off further advances and even strike up an unlikely friendship with the interloper.
[21099019] |Over dinners at New York's Sky Club and Links Club restaurants, the steel executive and the big investor talked steel, international trade and thoroughbred horses.

[21099020] |Mr. Corry, who has boned up on corporate raiders by reading T. Boone Pickens's autobiography, had hoped the detente would continue.
[21099021] |He was shocked, associates say, to learn of Mr. Icahn's new takeover threat.
[21099022] |(Both men declined to be interviewed for this article.)
[21099023] |But the fiercely competitive Mr. Corry quickly showed he's no pushover.
[21099024] |He huddled with directors at a special meeting two weeks ago and tried to block his opponent.

[21099025] |Although the board believed that Mr. Icahn is more interested in talking the stock price higher than acquiring USX, it adopted a poison-pill defense, to be swallowed if anyone amasses a 15% stake.

[21099026] |Now, it's Mr. Icahn's move.
[21099027] |Will he try to gain a seat on or control of the board and force a radical split of USX into separate oil and steel companies?
[21099028] |Given the weakness of the junk-bond market, can he finance a buy-out?
[21099029] |Mr. Icahn may not want to sell out unless he can get a special dividend similar to one he received before selling his stake in Texaco Inc. in June -- a coup that gave him enough cash to make his USX move.

[21099030] |And although the recent turmoil in the stock and junk-bond markets, by making it harder to arrange takeover financing, has eased some of the pressure on Mr. Corry, it doesn't end the takeover threat.
[21099031] |"I know it's not over," a sober-faced Mr. Corry acknowledged while greeting steel suppliers in New York on Oct. 12 and inviting them to a buffet of salmon and sushi in honor of Kobe Steel Ltd., USX's partner in a steel mill in Lorain, Ohio.

[21099032] |In fact, it's barely begun for Mr. Corry, who faces tough decisions before he has had a chance to get settled into his new job.
[21099033] |"He's in a vulnerable position because he hasn't established much credibility on his own," says Bryan Jacoboski, a securities analyst at PaineWebber Inc.

[21099034] |The 57-year-old tax attorney never even aspired to the job of chief executive.
[21099035] |An undistinguished college student who dabbled in zoology until he concluded that he couldn't stand cutting up frogs, Mr. Corry wanted to work for a big company "that could do big things."
[21099036] |But after joining the tax department of a USX subsidiary 30 years ago, he set the modest goal of becoming tax manager by the age of 46.
[21099037] |For years, he quietly stuck to the back accounting rooms, wearing a hat to work because everyone else did.
[21099038] |"I was never a rebel," he said in an earlier interview.
[21099039] |"I don't think most of the people that have been around me would ever say they've seen me pound the table or get angry."

[21099040] |Yet, the unassuming Mr. Corry helped chart USX's transition from Big Steel to Big Oil.
[21099041] |He served as Mr. Roderick's front man in tense negotiations for the 1982 purchase of Marathon Oil for $5.9 billion.

[21099042] |Nevertheless, Mr. Corry, once named chief executive, didn't waste any time distancing himself from his former boss, who still has an office on the 62nd floor of the USX tower in Pittsburgh.
[21099043] |Soon after taking over last June, Mr. Corry rescinded a pay cut imposed on clerical workers, a move that Mr. Roderick hadn't made in spite of improved earnings.
[21099044] |Mr. Corry also ruled that all board meetings would be held in Pittsburgh instead of New York or Findlay, Ohio, Marathon's home.

[21099045] |And, earlier this month, he announced the sale of the reserves of Texas Oil & Gas, which was acquired three years ago and hasn't posted any significant operating profits since.
[21099046] |One former executive says, "Nobody wanted that deal inside USX except Dave Roderick," who was a hunting and fishing buddy of William L. Hutchison, chairman of Texas Oil & Gas.
[21099047] |The executive recalls Mr. Corry whispering to him and others, "Remember, this was Dave's deal."

[21099048] |What miffed many USX executives and shareholders was that the acquisition, for $3 billion of stock, doubled the USX shares outstanding and considerably diluted them.
[21099049] |What's more, the takeover occurred as natural-gas prices were falling and just as Texas Oil & Gas reported its first annual loss in 28 years.

[21099050] |Mr. Corry expected the Texas Oil & Gas sale to delight Mr. Icahn by addressing his concern about boosting shareholder value.
[21099051] |But when the two men met in New York a day after Mr. Icahn disclosed the rise in his USX stake, Mr. Corry learned that Mr. Icahn wanted him to sell all of Texas Oil -- not just its reserves of about 1.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 28 million barrels of oil but also its pipeline, gas-gathering and contract-drilling operations.
[21099052] |That would leave USX with Marathon, its steel mills and its diversified business segment, which includes, among other things, mineral and transportation products.

[21099053] |Some speculate that Mr. Corry would agree if he could find a buyer at the right price.
[21099054] |The problem is that Mr. Icahn is pushing him to move faster and further in restructuring USX than Mr. Corry had planned.
[21099055] |Mr. Icahn has long believed, associates say, that the company, whose 1988 sales totaled $16.88 billion, is worth $70 a share if broken up.
[21099056] |The stock closed yesterday at $33.625, giving Mr. Icahn's 33.6 million shares a value of $1.13 billion.

[21099057] |Mr. Icahn advocates the sale of the company's steel operations, and Mr. Corry doesn't necessarily disagree.
[21099058] |Unlike his predecessor, who saw steel as America's backbone, Mr. Corry tends to view it as a capital-draining and labor-intensive business with limited potential, associates say.
[21099059] |In the past five years, USX has turned steel into a profit maker by closing several plants and reducing labor costs.
[21099060] |But the short-term outlook is so-so.

[21099061] |It isn't surprising that Messrs. Roderick and Corry view steel so differently.
[21099062] |While Mr. Roderick was reared in the shadows of Pittsburgh's smoking mills, Mr. Corry grew up in Cincinnati, a city nicknamed "Porkapolis" and more accustomed to pork chops than pig iron.
[21099063] |He has never met Lynn Williams, the president of the United Steelworkers union, and isn't active in the industry's main trade group, the American Iron and Steel Institute, which Mr. Roderick served as chairman.

[21099064] |"Dave thought the country needed a strong U.S. Steel and, while Chuck agreed, he was more apt to say, `Not at any cost to shareholders,'" a former executive says.
[21099065] |Indeed, Mr. Corry, at an August press conference, talked about investing in steel as long as it provides a good return and "not a day longer."

[21099066] |However, shedding steel would run directly counter to Mr. Roderick's original rationale for diversifying into oil and gas: Having two major products would lessen the company's vulnerability to one market's down cycle and help smooth out the flow of cash and earnings.
[21099067] |As Mr. Roderick once said: "We're a two-product company and, boy, if you can't figure out the value of those two parts, you are so damn dumb that you don't belong on Wall Street."

[21099068] |Moreover, the opportunity to sell steel at a price acceptable to USX may be gone, for now.
[21099069] |"The time has passed for us to spin off steel," either in a public offering or to a buyer, one executive contends.
[21099070] |About the only way that USX now can get out of steel is to dish it out, piece by piece, in separate joint ventures, he adds.

[21099071] |With Mr. Icahn breathing down his neck, however, Mr. Corry may have little choice but to sell at a weak price, even if it means losing some steel-related tax-loss carryforwards.
[21099072] |That would leave USX essentially an oil company with Marathon as its core.
[21099073] |Marathon has benefited from higher crude-oil prices and strong demand for refined products.

[21099074] |Oil has long been Mr. Corry's pet.
[21099075] |Indeed, when the Bush administration finally decided this summer to renew import restrictions -- arguably the most important decision to affect the steel industry in five years -- Mr. Corry and his directors were aboard helicopters, high above Marathon's rich oil reserves in the North Sea.

[21099076] |Should USX be left with only Marathon, Mr. Corry might well feel pushed to scout out other energy companies.
[21099077] |However, even USX executives who work closely with him aren't sure about his long-term goals.
[21099078] |"I don't think he has a clear sense of where he wants the company to go," one says.
[21099079] |Right now, the executive adds, "he wants to continue to focus on paying down" USX's debt by selling assets.

[21099080] |One thing is certain, however: Mr. Corry, while studying other options, probably won't make a major move until he's clear about Mr. Icahn's intentions.
[21099081] |And then, "he won't panic," says J. Bruce Johnston, a former USX executive and now a labor and benefit consultant with Adler Cohen & Grigsby in Pittsburgh.

[21099082] |Mr. Corry learned presence under fire when, as vice president of corporate planning, he handled what Mr. Johnston calls "don't-con-me" negotiations that led to USX's shedding of a wide array of assets ranging from chemicals to construction.

[21099083] |When negotiating, Mr. Corry played his cards close to the vest.
[21099084] |Johnnie Johnson, who worked for Mr. Corry in strategic planning, recalls how his boss would routinely ask a subordinate to research an entire industry to target acquisition candidates.
[21099085] |"What he really wanted to know was about a particular company, but you didn't know that.
[21099086] |He wanted your own unbiased, virgin opinion," says Mr. Johnson, now managing director at Georgeson & Co., a proxy-solicitation and investor-relations firm.

[21099087] |Ever the pragmatist, Mr. Corry said in August that he realized that USX is on "acquisition screens all over the country."

[21099088] |"It's part of the capitalistic market system that equity can be bought and equity is bought," he said.
[21099089] |USX, he noted, was formed 88 years ago, "by in effect buying out a bunch of other companies. . . .
[21099090] |People got rich through takeovers in those days, as they do today."

[21099091] |Thomas F. O'Boyle contributed to this article.